Converter to show description of an enum, and convert back to enum value on selecting an item from combo box in wpf

Question

I am using an enum to enlist values in my combobox. I want to write a converter that would show the "description" of the selected enum value. And, when selected, i

Answer 1

I know this is an old question, but for some reason, this is rather complicated, even though it seems like it'd be a pretty common task (I'm currently doing this on a UWP app). Using a combination of the accepted answer, some other items I found, and a bit of my own work, here's the simplest way I've found to accomplish this menial task. In short:

• Define your enum along w/ setting the description in the Display attribute
• Create a converter that converts from an enum value to the description
• In your viewmodel, expose a collection of enum values from which to choose, the selected enum value, then initialize those
• Define a couple of handy enum extension methods
• Finally, some simple binding to the ComboBox, just overriding its ItemTemplate to use the converter.

Enum

public enum EnumOptions
{
    [Display(Description = "Option 1")]
    OptionOne= 1,
    [Display(Description = "Option 2")]
    OptionTwo,
    [Display(Description = "Option 3")]
    OptionThree
}

Converter

public class EnumToDisplayConverter : IValueConverter
{
    public object Convert(object value, Type targetType, object parameter, string language)
    {
        var enumValue = value as Enum;

        return enumValue == null ? DependencyProperty.UnsetValue : enumValue.GetDescriptionFromEnumValue();
    }

    public object ConvertBack(object value, Type targetType, object parameter, string language)
    {
        return value;
    }
}

Viewmodel (partial)

public IReadOnlyList Options { get; }

private EnumOptions _selectedOption;

public EnumOptions SelectedOption
{
    get { return _selectedOption; }
    set
    {
        _selectedOption = value;
        OnPropertyChanged(() => SelectedOption);
    }
}

// Initialization in constructor
Options = EnumExtensions.GetValues().ToArray();
// If you want to set a default.
SelectedOption = Options[0];

Extensions

public static class EnumExtensions
{
    public static string GetDescriptionFromEnumValue(this Enum value)
    {
        var attribute = value.GetType()
            .GetField(value.ToString())
            .GetCustomAttributes(typeof(DisplayAttribute), false)
            .SingleOrDefault() as DisplayAttribute;
        return attribute == null ? value.ToString() : attribute.Description;
    }

    /// 

    /// Enumerates all enum values
    /// 
    /// Enum type
    /// IEnumerable containing all enum values
    /// 
    public static IEnumerable GetValues()
    {
        return Enum.GetValues(typeof (T)).Cast();
    }
}

XAML (partial)

Choose an option