Enum ToString with user friendly strings

Question

My enum consists of the following values:

private enum PublishStatusses{
    NotCompleted,
    Completed,
    Error
};

I want to be able to

Answer 1

I use a generic class to store the enum/description pairs and a nested helper class to get the description.

The enum:

enum Status { Success, Fail, Pending }

The generic class:

Note: Since a generic class cannot be constrained by an enum I am constraining by struct instead and checking for enum in the constructor.

public class EnumX where T : struct
{
    public T Code { get; set; }
    public string Description { get; set; }

    public EnumX(T code, string desc)
    {
        if (!typeof(T).IsEnum) throw new NotImplementedException();

        Code = code;
        Description = desc;
    }

    public class Helper
    {
        private List> codes;

        public Helper(List> codes)
        {
            this.codes = codes;
        }

        public string GetDescription(T code)
        {
            EnumX e = codes.Where(c => c.Code.Equals(code)).FirstOrDefault();
            return e is null ? "Undefined" : e.Description;
        }
    }
}

Usage:

EnumX.Helper StatusCodes = new EnumX.Helper(new List>()
        {
            new EnumX(Status.Success,"Operation was successful"),
            new EnumX(Status.Fail,"Operation failed"),
            new EnumX(Status.Pending,"Operation not complete. Please wait...")
        });

        Console.WriteLine(StatusCodes.GetDescription(Status.Pending));