Description Attribute

David Smith

lolol a lil complicated for me what if i do something like this, Im having a lil trouble with it, can you tell me what im doing wrong

public enum ValidAnimals
    {
      [Description("BEAR")] A = 0x0000,     //is there a way to get the description base off of the 0x0000
      [Description("DOG ")] B = 0x0001,
      [Description("CAT ")] C = 0x0002,
    }

    public string GetName(string Value)
    {Value ="0000";
      FieldInfo fi = stringValue.GetType().GetField(Value);
      DescriptionAttribute[] attributes = (DescriptionAttribute[])fi.GetCustomAttributes(typeof(DescriptionAttribute), false);
      return (attributes.Length > 0) ? attributes[0].Description : stringValue;
    }

im basically get a 4 nibble string, and I want to do a look up via the above enum, so like "0000" means Bear, Bear is the value i want to get back

4 Replies

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David Smith16y ago
Ok now im having a issue

public enum ValidAnimals
    {
      [Description("BEAR")] A = 0x0000,
      [Description("DOG ")] B = 0x0026,
      [Description("CAT ")] C = 0x0002,
    }

string value = commonFunctions.GetTestName((ValidAnimals )Enum.Parse(typeof(ValidAnimals ),"0026"));

public string GetTestName(Enum eventValue)
    {
      ValidTestNames vtn = (ValidTestNames)eventValue;

      // Get the type
      Type type = eventValue.GetType();

      // Get fieldinfo for this type
      FieldInfo fieldInfo = type.GetField(vtn.ToString());

      // Get the stringvalue attributes
      DescriptionAttribute[] attribs = fieldInfo.GetCustomAttributes(
          typeof(DescriptionAttribute), false) as DescriptionAttribute[];   /////////// it fails right at this line

      // Return the first if there was a match.
      return attribs.Length > 0 ? attribs[0].Description : null;
    }
0
David Smith16y ago
Thanks I fix I had to the ValidAnimals.Parse situation to get it to work, because im using the enum as a lookup
0
16y ago
Please check the link. http://msmvps.com/blogs/deborahk/archive/2009/07/10/enum-binding-to-the-description-attribute.aspx
public enum CustomerTypeOption
{
    [DescriptionAttribute("Not Specified")]
    NotDefined,
    [DescriptionAttribute("Corporation")]
    Corp,
    [DescriptionAttribute("Individual or Family")]
    IndividualorFamily,
    [DescriptionAttribute("School or University")]
    SchoolorUniversity,
    [DescriptionAttribute("Charity")]
    Charity
}

Dictionary CustomerTypeList =
                                new Dictionary();
FieldInfo fi;
DescriptionAttribute da;
foreach (Customer.CustomerTypeOption enumValue in
           Enum.GetValues(typeof(Customer.CustomerTypeOption)))
{
    fi = typeof(Customer.CustomerTypeOption).
                    GetField((enumValue.ToString()));
    da = (DescriptionAttribute)Attribute.GetCustomAttribute(fi,
                    typeof(DescriptionAttribute));
    if (da != null)
    {
       CustomerTypeList.Add(da.Description, (int)enumValue);
    }
}
// Bind the customer type combo box
CustomerTypeComboBox.DisplayMember = "Key";
CustomerTypeComboBox.ValueMember = "Value";
CustomerTypeComboBox.DataSource = new BindingSource(CustomerTypeList, null);
0
Felipe Ramos16y ago
Remember you want to get the description from the enum, so that is what you are going to pass in.

   public static string GetName(ValidAnimals value)
   {
   // Get the type
   Type type = value.GetType();

   // Get fieldinfo for this type
   FieldInfo fieldInfo = type.GetField(value.ToString());

   // Get the stringvalue attributes
   DescriptionAttribute[] attribs = fieldInfo.GetCustomAttributes(
   typeof(DescriptionAttribute), false) as DescriptionAttribute[];

   // Return the first if there was a match.
   return attribs.Length > 0 ? attribs[0].Description : null;
   }
0