Display enum in ComboBox with spaces

Question

I have an enum, example:

enum MyEnum
{
My_Value_1,
My_Value_2
}

With :

comboBox1.DataSource = Enum.GetValues(typeof(MyEnum)         


        

Answer 1

If you're using .NET 3.5, you could add this extension class:

public static class EnumExtensions {

    public static List GetFriendlyNames(this Enum enm) {
        List result = new List();
        result.AddRange(Enum.GetNames(enm.GetType()).Select(s => s.ToFriendlyName()));
        return result;
    }

    public static string GetFriendlyName(this Enum enm) {
        return Enum.GetName(enm.GetType(), enm).ToFriendlyName();
    }

    private static string ToFriendlyName(this string orig) {
        return orig.Replace("_", " ");
    }
}

And then to set up your combo box you'd just do:

MyEnum val = MyEnum.My_Value_1;
comboBox1.DataSource = val.GetFriendlyNames();
comboBox1.SelectedItem = val.GetFriendlyName();

This should work with any Enum. You'd have to make sure you have a using statement for the namespace that includes the EnumExtensions class.