Show Enum Description Instead of Name

Question

I had databinding set up like this:

ItemsSource=\"{Binding Source={my:Enumeration {x:Type credit:OccupationCategory}}         


        

Answer 1

If you keep this ItemsSource you will have to define a custom ItemTemplate as the DisplayMemberPath is just a path via which you will not be able to retrieve the description.

As for what the template should look like: You can bind a TextBlock to the enum value (the current DataContext) and pipe that through a ValueConverter using Binding.Converter. The code would just be some reflection to retrieve the Description (GetType, GetCustomAttributes etc.)

Alternatives are a custom method that return a usable collection right away (and is used in the ObjectDataProvider) or a custom markup extension which does the same thing.

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Method example if we are talking about a ComponentModel.DescriptionAttribute:

public static class EnumUtility
{
    // Might want to return a named type, this is a lazy example (which does work though)
    public static object[] GetValuesAndDescriptions(Type enumType)
    {
        var values = Enum.GetValues(enumType).Cast