[c#] Getting attributes of Enum's value

I would like to know if it is possible to get attributes of the enum values and not of the enum itself? For example, suppose I have the following enum:

using System.ComponentModel; // for DescriptionAttribute

enum FunkyAttributesEnum
{
    [Description("Name With Spaces1")]
    NameWithoutSpaces1,    
    [Description("Name With Spaces2")]
    NameWithoutSpaces2
}

What I want is given the enum type, produce 2-tuples of enum string value and its description.

Value was easy:

Array values = System.Enum.GetValues(typeof(FunkyAttributesEnum));
foreach (int value in values)
    Tuple.Value = Enum.GetName(typeof(FunkyAttributesEnum), value);

But how do I get description attribute's value, to populate Tuple.Desc? I can think of how to do it if the Attribute belongs to the enum itself, but I am at a loss as to how to get it from the value of the enum.

Get the dictionary from enum.

public static IDictionary<string, int> ToDictionary(this Type enumType)
{
    return Enum.GetValues(enumType)
    .Cast<object>()
    .ToDictionary(v => ((Enum)v).ToEnumDescription(), k => (int)k); 
}

Now call this like...

var dic = typeof(ActivityType).ToDictionary();

EnumDecription Ext Method

public static string ToEnumDescription(this Enum en) //ext method
{
    Type type = en.GetType();
    MemberInfo[] memInfo = type.GetMember(en.ToString());
    if (memInfo != null && memInfo.Length > 0)
    {
        object[] attrs = memInfo[0].GetCustomAttributes(typeof(DescriptionAttribute), false);
        if (attrs != null && attrs.Length > 0)
            return ((DescriptionAttribute)attrs[0]).Description;
    }
    return en.ToString();
}

public enum ActivityType
{
    [Description("Drip Plan Email")]
    DripPlanEmail = 1,
    [Description("Modification")]
    Modification = 2,
    [Description("View")]
    View = 3,
    [Description("E-Alert Sent")]
    EAlertSent = 4,
    [Description("E-Alert View")]
    EAlertView = 5
}

I implemented this extension method to get the description from enum values. It works for all kind of enums.

public static class EnumExtension
{
    public static string ToDescription(this System.Enum value)
    {
        FieldInfo fi = value.GetType().GetField(value.ToString());
        var attributes = (DescriptionAttribute[])fi.GetCustomAttributes(typeof(DescriptionAttribute), false);
        return attributes.Length > 0 ? attributes[0].Description : value.ToString();
    }
}

I've merged a couple of the answers here to create a little more extensible solution. I'm providing it just in case it's helpful to anyone else in the future. Original posting here.

using System;
using System.ComponentModel;

public static class EnumExtensions {

    // This extension method is broken out so you can use a similar pattern with 
    // other MetaData elements in the future. This is your base method for each.
    public static T GetAttribute<T>(this Enum value) where T : Attribute {
        var type = value.GetType();
        var memberInfo = type.GetMember(value.ToString());
        var attributes = memberInfo[0].GetCustomAttributes(typeof(T), false);
        return attributes.Length > 0 
          ? (T)attributes[0]
          : null;
    }

    // This method creates a specific call to the above method, requesting the
    // Description MetaData attribute.
    public static string ToName(this Enum value) {
        var attribute = value.GetAttribute<DescriptionAttribute>();
        return attribute == null ? value.ToString() : attribute.Description;
    }

}

This solution creates a pair of extension methods on Enum. The first allows you to use reflection to retrieve any attribute associated with your value. The second specifically calls retrieves the DescriptionAttribute and returns it's Description value.

As an example, consider using the DescriptionAttribute attribute from System.ComponentModel

using System.ComponentModel;

public enum Days {
    [Description("Sunday")]
    Sun,
    [Description("Monday")]
    Mon,
    [Description("Tuesday")]
    Tue,
    [Description("Wednesday")]
    Wed,
    [Description("Thursday")]
    Thu,
    [Description("Friday")]
    Fri,
    [Description("Saturday")]
    Sat
}

To use the above extension method, you would now simply call the following:

Console.WriteLine(Days.Mon.ToName());

or

var day = Days.Mon;
Console.WriteLine(day.ToName());

Adding my solution for Net Framework and NetCore.

I used this for my Net Framework implementation:

public static class EnumerationExtension
{
    public static string Description( this Enum value )
    {
        // get attributes  
        var field = value.GetType().GetField( value.ToString() );
        var attributes = field.GetCustomAttributes( typeof( DescriptionAttribute ), false );

        // return description
        return attributes.Any() ? ( (DescriptionAttribute)attributes.ElementAt( 0 ) ).Description : "Description Not Found";
    }
}

This doesn't work for NetCore so I modified it to do this:

public static class EnumerationExtension
{
    public static string Description( this Enum value )
    {
        // get attributes  
        var field = value.GetType().GetField( value.ToString() );
        var attributes = field.GetCustomAttributes( false );

        // Description is in a hidden Attribute class called DisplayAttribute
        // Not to be confused with DisplayNameAttribute
        dynamic displayAttribute = null;

        if (attributes.Any())
        {
            displayAttribute = attributes.ElementAt( 0 );
        }

        // return description
        return displayAttribute?.Description ?? "Description Not Found";
    }
}

Enumeration Example:

public enum ExportTypes
{
    [Display( Name = "csv", Description = "text/csv" )]
    CSV = 0
}

Sample Usage for either static added:

var myDescription = myEnum.Description();

This is how I solved it without using custom helpers or extensions with .NET core 3.1.

Class

public enum YourEnum
{
    [Display(Name = "Suryoye means Arameans")]
    SURYOYE = 0,
    [Display(Name = "Oromoye means Syriacs")]
    OROMOYE = 1,
}

Razor

@using Enumerations

foreach (var name in Html.GetEnumSelectList(typeof(YourEnum)))
{
    <h1>@name.Text</h1>
}

Bryan Rowe and AdamCrawford thanks for your answers!

But if somebody need method for get Discription (not extension) you can use it:

string GetEnumDiscription(Enum EnumValue)
        {
            var type = EnumValue.GetType();
            var memInfo = type.GetMember(EnumValue.ToString());
            var attributes = memInfo[0].GetCustomAttributes(typeof(DescriptionAttribute), false);
            return (attributes.Length > 0) ? ((DescriptionAttribute)attributes[0]).Description : null;
        }

This piece of code should give you a nice little extension method on any enum that lets you retrieve a generic attribute. I believe it's different to the lambda function above because it's simpler to use and slightly - you only need to pass in the generic type.

public static class EnumHelper
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Gets an attribute on an enum field value
    /// </summary>
    /// <typeparam name="T">The type of the attribute you want to retrieve</typeparam>
    /// <param name="enumVal">The enum value</param>
    /// <returns>The attribute of type T that exists on the enum value</returns>
    /// <example><![CDATA[string desc = myEnumVariable.GetAttributeOfType<DescriptionAttribute>().Description;]]></example>
    public static T GetAttributeOfType<T>(this Enum enumVal) where T:System.Attribute
    {
        var type = enumVal.GetType();
        var memInfo = type.GetMember(enumVal.ToString());
        var attributes = memInfo[0].GetCustomAttributes(typeof(T), false);
        return (attributes.Length > 0) ? (T)attributes[0] : null;
    }
}

This is a generic implementation using a lambda for the selection

public static Expected GetAttributeValue<T, Expected>(this Enum enumeration, Func<T, Expected> expression)
    where T : Attribute
{
    T attribute =
      enumeration
        .GetType()
        .GetMember(enumeration.ToString())
        .Where(member => member.MemberType == MemberTypes.Field)
        .FirstOrDefault()
        .GetCustomAttributes(typeof(T), false)
        .Cast<T>()
        .SingleOrDefault();

    if (attribute == null)
        return default(Expected);

    return expression(attribute);
}

Call it like this:

string description = targetLevel.GetAttributeValue<DescriptionAttribute, string>(x => x.Description);

Alternatively, you could do the following:

Dictionary<FunkyAttributesEnum, string> description = new Dictionary<FunkyAttributesEnum, string>()
    {
      { FunkyAttributesEnum.NameWithoutSpaces1, "Name With Spaces1" },
      { FunkyAttributesEnum.NameWithoutSpaces2, "Name With Spaces2" },
    };

And get the description with the following:

string s = description[FunkyAttributesEnum.NameWithoutSpaces1];

In my opinion this is a more efficient way of doing what you want to accomplish, as no reflection is needed..

You can also define an enum value like Name_Without_Spaces, and when you want a description use Name_Without_Spaces.ToString().Replace('_', ' ') to replace the underscores with spaces.

Here's the .NET Core version of AdamCrawford's answer, using System.Reflection.TypeExtensions;

public static class EnumHelper
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Gets an attribute on an enum field value
    /// </summary>
    /// <typeparam name="T">The type of the attribute you want to retrieve</typeparam>
    /// <param name="enumVal">The enum value</param>
    /// <returns>The attribute of type T that exists on the enum value</returns>
    /// <example>string desc = myEnumVariable.GetAttributeOfType<DescriptionAttribute>().Description;</example>
    public static T GetAttributeOfType<T>(this Enum enumVal) where T : System.Attribute
    {
        var type = enumVal.GetType();
        var memInfo = type.GetMember(enumVal.ToString());
        IEnumerable<Attribute> attributes = memInfo[0].GetCustomAttributes(typeof(T), false);
        return (T)attributes?.ToArray()[0];
    }
}

I this answer to setup a combo box from an enum attributes which was great.

I then needed to code the reverse so that I can get the selection from the box and return the enum in the correct type.

I also modified the code to handle the case where an attribute was missing

For the benefits of the next person, here is my final solution

public static class Program
{
   static void Main(string[] args)
    {
       // display the description attribute from the enum
       foreach (Colour type in (Colour[])Enum.GetValues(typeof(Colour)))
       {
            Console.WriteLine(EnumExtensions.ToName(type));
       }

       // Get the array from the description
       string xStr = "Yellow";
       Colour thisColour = EnumExtensions.FromName<Colour>(xStr);

       Console.ReadLine();
    }

   public enum Colour
   {
       [Description("Colour Red")]
       Red = 0,

       [Description("Colour Green")]
       Green = 1,

       [Description("Colour Blue")]
       Blue = 2,

       Yellow = 3
   }
}

public static class EnumExtensions
{

    // This extension method is broken out so you can use a similar pattern with 
    // other MetaData elements in the future. This is your base method for each.
    public static T GetAttribute<T>(this Enum value) where T : Attribute
    {
        var type = value.GetType();
        var memberInfo = type.GetMember(value.ToString());
        var attributes = memberInfo[0].GetCustomAttributes(typeof(T), false);

        // check if no attributes have been specified.
        if (((Array)attributes).Length > 0)
        {
            return (T)attributes[0];
        }
        else
        {
            return null;
        }
    }

    // This method creates a specific call to the above method, requesting the
    // Description MetaData attribute.
    public static string ToName(this Enum value)
    {
        var attribute = value.GetAttribute<DescriptionAttribute>();
        return attribute == null ? value.ToString() : attribute.Description;
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Find the enum from the description attribute.
    /// </summary>
    /// <typeparam name="T"></typeparam>
    /// <param name="desc"></param>
    /// <returns></returns>
    public static T FromName<T>(this string desc) where T : struct
    {
        string attr;
        Boolean found = false;
        T result = (T)Enum.GetValues(typeof(T)).GetValue(0);

        foreach (object enumVal in Enum.GetValues(typeof(T)))
        {
            attr = ((Enum)enumVal).ToName();

            if (attr == desc)
            {
                result = (T)enumVal;
                found = true;
                break;
            }
        }

        if (!found)
        {
            throw new Exception();
        }

        return result;
    }
}

}

Guys if it helps I will share with you my solution: Definition of Custom attribute:

    [AttributeUsage(AttributeTargets.Field,AllowMultiple = false)]
public class EnumDisplayName : Attribute
{
    public string Name { get; private set; }
    public EnumDisplayName(string name)
    {
        Name = name;
    }
}

Now because I needed it inside of HtmlHelper definition of HtmlHelper Extension:

public static class EnumHelper
{
    public static string EnumDisplayName(this HtmlHelper helper,EPriceType priceType)
    {
        //Get every fields from enum
        var fields = priceType.GetType().GetFields();
        //Foreach field skipping 1`st fieldw which keeps currently sellected value
        for (int i = 0; i < fields.Length;i++ )
        {
            //find field with same int value
            if ((int)fields[i].GetValue(priceType) == (int)priceType)
            {
                //get attributes of found field
                var attributes = fields[i].GetCustomAttributes(false);
                if (attributes.Length > 0)
                {
                    //return name of found attribute
                    var retAttr = (EnumDisplayName)attributes[0];
                    return retAttr.Name;
                }
            }
        }
        //throw Error if not found
        throw new Exception("Blad podczas ustalania atrybutów dla typu ceny allegro");
    }
}

Hope it helps

Fluent one liner...

Here I'm using the DisplayAttribute which contains both the Name and Description properties.

public static DisplayAttribute GetDisplayAttributesFrom(this Enum enumValue, Type enumType)
{
    return enumType.GetMember(enumValue.ToString())
                   .First()
                   .GetCustomAttribute<DisplayAttribute>();
}

Example

public enum ModesOfTransport
{
    [Display(Name = "Driving",    Description = "Driving a car")]        Land,
    [Display(Name = "Flying",     Description = "Flying on a plane")]    Air,
    [Display(Name = "Sea cruise", Description = "Cruising on a dinghy")] Sea
}

void Main()
{
    ModesOfTransport TransportMode = ModesOfTransport.Sea;
    DisplayAttribute metadata = TransportMode.GetDisplayAttributesFrom(typeof(ModesOfTransport));
    Console.WriteLine("Name: {0} \nDescription: {1}", metadata.Name, metadata.Description);
}

Output

Name: Sea cruise 
Description: Cruising on a dinghy

Alternatively, you could do the following:

List<SelectListItem> selectListItems = new List<SelectListItem>();

    foreach (var item in typeof(PaymentTerm).GetEnumValues())
    {
        var type = item.GetType();
        var name = type.GetField(item.ToString()).GetCustomAttributesData().FirstOrDefault()?.NamedArguments.FirstOrDefault().TypedValue.Value.ToString();
        selectListItems.Add(new SelectListItem(name, type.Name));

    }

Taking advantage of some of the newer C# language features, you can reduce the line count:

public static TAttribute GetEnumAttribute<TAttribute>(this Enum enumVal) where TAttribute : Attribute
{
    var memberInfo = enumVal.GetType().GetMember(enumVal.ToString());
    return memberInfo[0].GetCustomAttributes(typeof(TAttribute), false).OfType<TAttribute>().FirstOrDefault();
}

public static string GetEnumDescription(this Enum enumValue) => enumValue.GetEnumAttribute<DescriptionAttribute>()?.Description ?? enumValue.ToString();

    public enum DataFilters
    {
        [Display(Name= "Equals")]
        Equals = 1,// Display Name and Enum Name are same 
        [Display(Name= "Does Not Equal")]
        DoesNotEqual = 2, // Display Name and Enum Name are different             
    }

Now it will produce error in this case 1 "Equals"

public static string GetDisplayName(this Enum enumValue)
    {
        var enumMember = enumValue.GetType().GetMember(enumValue.ToString()).First();
        return enumMember.GetCustomAttribute<DisplayAttribute>() != null ? enumMember.GetCustomAttribute<DisplayAttribute>().Name : enumMember.Name;
    }

so if it is same return enum name rather than display name because enumMember.GetCustomAttribute() gets null if displayname and enum name are same.....

Performance matters

If you want better performance this is the way to go:

public static class AdvancedEnumExtensions
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Gets the custom attribute <typeparamref name="T"/> for the enum constant, if such a constant is defined and has such an attribute; otherwise null.
    /// </summary>
    public static T GetCustomAttribute<T>(this Enum value) where T : Attribute
    {
        return GetField(value)?.GetCustomAttribute<T>(inherit: false);
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Gets the FieldInfo for the enum constant, if such a constant is defined; otherwise null.
    /// </summary>
    public static FieldInfo GetField(this Enum value)
    {
        ulong u64 = ToUInt64(value);
        return value
            .GetType()
            .GetFields(BindingFlags.Public | BindingFlags.NonPublic | BindingFlags.Static)
            .Where(f => ToUInt64(f.GetRawConstantValue()) == u64)
            .FirstOrDefault();
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Checks if an enum constant is defined for this enum value
    /// </summary>
    public static bool IsDefined(this Enum value)
    {
        return GetField(value) != null;
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Converts the enum value to UInt64
    /// </summary>
    public static ulong ToUInt64(this Enum value) => ToUInt64((object)value);

    private static ulong ToUInt64(object value)
    {
        switch (Convert.GetTypeCode(value))
        {
            case TypeCode.SByte:
            case TypeCode.Int16:
            case TypeCode.Int32:
            case TypeCode.Int64:
                return unchecked((ulong)Convert.ToInt64(value, CultureInfo.InvariantCulture));

            case TypeCode.Byte:
            case TypeCode.UInt16:
            case TypeCode.UInt32:
            case TypeCode.UInt64:
            case TypeCode.Char:
            case TypeCode.Boolean:
                return Convert.ToUInt64(value, CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);

            default: throw new InvalidOperationException("UnknownEnumType");
        }
    }
}

Why does this have better performance?

Because the built-in methods all use code very similar to this except they also run a bunch of other code we don't care about. C#'s Enum code is quite horrible in general.

The above code has been Linq-ified and streamlined so it only contains the bits we care about.

Why is the built-in code slow?

First regarding Enum.ToString() -vs- Enum.GetName(..)

Always use the latter. (Or better yet neither, as will become clear below.)

ToString() uses the latter internally, but again, also does a bunch of other stuff we don't want, e.g. tries to combine flags, print out numbers etc. We are only interested in constants defined inside the enum.

Enum.GetName in turn gets all fields, creates a string array for all names, uses the above ToUInt64 on all of their RawConstantValues to create an UInt64 array of all values, sorts both arrays according to the UInt64 value, and finally gets the name from the name-array by doing a BinarySearch in the UInt64-array to find the index of the value we wanted.

...and then we throw the fields and the sorted arrays away use that name to find the field again.

One word: "Ugh!"

If your enum contains a value like Equals you might bump into a few bugs using some extensions in a lot of answers here. This is because it is normally assumed that typeof(YourEnum).GetMember(YourEnum.Value) would return only one value, which is the MemberInfo of your enum. Here's a slightly safer version Adam Crawford's answer.

public static class AttributeExtensions
{
    #region Methods

    public static T GetAttribute<T>(this Enum enumValue) where T : Attribute
    {
        var type = enumValue.GetType();
        var memberInfo = type.GetMember(enumValue.ToString());
        var member = memberInfo.FirstOrDefault(m => m.DeclaringType == type);
        var attribute = Attribute.GetCustomAttribute(member, typeof(T), false);
        return attribute is T ? (T)attribute : null;
    }

    #endregion
}

For some programmer humor, a one liner as a joke:

public static string GetDescription(this Enum value) => value.GetType().GetMember(value.ToString()).First().GetCustomAttribute<DescriptionAttribute>() is DescriptionAttribute attribute ? attribute.Description : string.Empty;

In a more readable form:

using System;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Linq;
using System.Reflection;

public static class EnumExtensions
{
    // get description from enum:

    public static string GetDescription(this Enum value)
    {
        return value.GetType().
            GetMember(value.ToString()).
            First().
            GetCustomAttribute<DescriptionAttribute>() is DescriptionAttribute attribute
            ? attribute.Description
            : throw new Exception($"Enum member '{value.GetType()}.{value}' doesn't have a [DescriptionAttribute]!");
    }

    // get enum from description:

    public static T GetEnum<T>(this string description) where T : Enum
    {
        foreach (FieldInfo fieldInfo in typeof(T).GetFields())
        {
            if (fieldInfo.GetCustomAttribute<DescriptionAttribute>() is DescriptionAttribute attribute && attribute.Description == description)
                return (T)fieldInfo.GetRawConstantValue();
        }

        throw new Exception($"Enum '{typeof(T)}' doesn't have a member with a [DescriptionAttribute('{description}')]!");
    }
}

This extension method will obtain a string representation of an enum value using its XmlEnumAttribute. If no XmlEnumAttribute is present, it falls back to enum.ToString().

public static string ToStringUsingXmlEnumAttribute<T>(this T enumValue)
    where T: struct, IConvertible
{
    if (!typeof(T).IsEnum)
    {
        throw new ArgumentException("T must be an enumerated type");
    }

    string name;

    var type = typeof(T);

    var memInfo = type.GetMember(enumValue.ToString());

    if (memInfo.Length == 1)
    {
        var attributes = memInfo[0].GetCustomAttributes(typeof(System.Xml.Serialization.XmlEnumAttribute), false);

        if (attributes.Length == 1)
        {
            name = ((System.Xml.Serialization.XmlEnumAttribute)attributes[0]).Name;
        }
        else
        {
            name = enumValue.ToString();
        }
    }
    else
    {
        name = enumValue.ToString();
    }

    return name;
}

And if you want the full list of names you can do something like

typeof (PharmacyConfigurationKeys).GetFields()
        .Where(x => x.GetCustomAttributes(false).Any(y => typeof(DescriptionAttribute) == y.GetType()))
        .Select(x => ((DescriptionAttribute)x.GetCustomAttributes(false)[0]).Description);

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 "));
    }

In addition to AdamCrawford response, I've further created a more specialized extension methods that feed of it to get the description.

public static string GetAttributeDescription(this Enum enumValue)
{
    var attribute = enumValue.GetAttributeOfType<DescriptionAttribute>();
    return attribute == null ? String.Empty : attribute.Description;
} 

hence, to get the description, you could either use the original extension method as

string desc = myEnumVariable.GetAttributeOfType<DescriptionAttribute>().Description

or you could simply call the the extension method here as:

string desc = myEnumVariable.GetAttributeDescription();

Which should hopefully make your code a bit more readable.