Here is code to get information from a Display attribute. It uses a generic method to retrieve the attribute. If the attribute is not found it converts the enum value to a string with pascal/camel case converted to title case (code obtained here)
public static class EnumHelper
{
// Get the Name value of the Display attribute if the
// enum has one, otherwise use the value converted to title case.
public static string GetDisplayName<TEnum>(this TEnum value)
where TEnum : struct, IConvertible
{
var attr = value.GetAttributeOfType<TEnum, DisplayAttribute>();
return attr == null ? value.ToString().ToSpacedTitleCase() : attr.Name;
}
// Get the ShortName value of the Display attribute if the
// enum has one, otherwise use the value converted to title case.
public static string GetDisplayShortName<TEnum>(this TEnum value)
where TEnum : struct, IConvertible
{
var attr = value.GetAttributeOfType<TEnum, DisplayAttribute>();
return attr == null ? value.ToString().ToSpacedTitleCase() : attr.ShortName;
}
/// <summary>
/// Gets an attribute on an enum field value
/// </summary>
/// <typeparam name="TEnum">The enum type</typeparam>
/// <typeparam name="T">The type of the attribute you want to retrieve</typeparam>
/// <param name="value">The enum value</param>
/// <returns>The attribute of type T that exists on the enum value</returns>
private static T GetAttributeOfType<TEnum, T>(this TEnum value)
where TEnum : struct, IConvertible
where T : Attribute
{
return value.GetType()
.GetMember(value.ToString())
.First()
.GetCustomAttributes(false)
.OfType<T>()
.LastOrDefault();
}
}
And this is the extension method for strings for converting to title case:
/// <summary>
/// Converts camel case or pascal case to separate words with title case
/// </summary>
/// <param name="s"></param>
/// <returns></returns>
public static string ToSpacedTitleCase(this string s)
{
//https://stackoverflow.com/a/155486/150342
CultureInfo cultureInfo = Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture;
TextInfo textInfo = cultureInfo.TextInfo;
return textInfo
.ToTitleCase(Regex.Replace(s,
"([a-z](?=[A-Z0-9])|[A-Z](?=[A-Z][a-z]))", "$1 "));
}