C# – Getting attributes of Enum’s value

.net-attributescenumsreflection

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.

Best Answer

This should do what you need.

try
{
  var enumType = typeof(FunkyAttributesEnum);
  var memberInfos = 
  enumType.GetMember(FunkyAttributesEnum.NameWithoutSpaces1.ToString());
  var enumValueMemberInfo = memberInfos.FirstOrDefault(m => 
  m.DeclaringType == enumType);
  var valueAttributes = 
  enumValueMemberInfo.GetCustomAttributes(typeof(DescriptionAttribute), false);
  var description = ((DescriptionAttribute)valueAttributes[0]).Description;
}
catch
{
    return FunkyAttributesEnum.NameWithoutSpaces1.ToString()
}
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