Use custom attributes to define detailed texts of enumeration values

New Solution: http://hilite.cnblogs.com/archive/2006/03/28/360793.html

For Enumeration type: enum WorkState
{
/// <Summary>
/// Plan
/// </Summary>
Planing,
/// <Summary>
/// Ready
/// </Summary>
Ready,
/// <Summary>
/// In progress
/// </Summary>
Processing,
/// <Summary>
/// Complete
/// </Summary>
Finished
}

How do you see the enumerated values on the interface? MessageBox. Show (WorkState. Ready. ToString ());

The result must have been "Ready", not "Ready ".

In many cases, the enumerated value text with more complete or other content needs to be displayed,
One solution is to maintain a corresponding table somewhere to maintain all enumerated value texts, which may lead to a disconnection between the enumerated type and text.
Another solution is to define the enumeration type by using the custom attribute "EnumDescription". In this way, the enumerated value and text are together, which makes it easy to maintain. [EnumDescription (WorkState. Planing, "Planning in progress")]
[EnumDescription (WorkState. Ready, "Everything is Ready")]
[EnumDescription (WorkState. Processing, "working in progress")]
[EnumDescription (WorkState. Finished, "Finished")]
Enum WorkState
{
Planing,
Ready,
Processing,
Finished
}

Now you are calling the code: MessageBox. Show (
EnumDescription. GetText (typeof (WorkState), (int) WorkState. Planing ));

You will see the desired text "planning ".

Here is the specific implementation and test code of "EnumDescription. Http://files.cnblogs.com/hilite/EnumDisplayText.zip

Here is the main code: the main code
1/** // <summary>
2 // obtain all the texts defined by the enumerated type
3 /// </summary>
4 /// <exception cref = "NotSupportedException"> </exception>
5 /// <param name = "enumType"> Enumeration type </param>
6 /// <param name = "sortType"> specify the sorting type </param>
7 // <returns> all defined text </returns>
8 public static EnumDescription [] GetTexts (Type enumType, SortType sortType)
9 {
10 EnumDescription [] descriptions = null;
11 // cache Processing
12 if (cachedEnum. Contains (enumType. FullName) = false)
13 cachedEnum. Add (enumType. FullName, enumType. GetCustomAttributes (typeof (EnumDescription), false ));
14 descriptions = (EnumDescription []) cachedEnum [enumType. FullName];
15 if (descriptions. Length <= 0) throw new NotSupportedException ("Enumeration type [" + enumType. Name + "] undefined attribute EnumValueDescription ");
16
17 // sort by the specified attribute bubble
18 for (int m = 0; m <descriptions. Length; m ++)
19 {
20 for (int n = m; n <descriptions. Length; n ++)
21 {
22 EnumDescription temp;
23 bool swap = false;
24
25 switch (sortType)
26 {
27 case SortType. Value:
28 if (descriptions [m]. EnumValue> descriptions [n]. EnumValue) swap = true;
29 break;
30 case SortType. DisplayText:
31 if (string. Compare (descriptions [m]. EnumDisplayText, descriptions [n]. EnumDisplayText)> 0) swap = true;
32 break;
33 case SortType. Rank:
34 if (descriptions [m]. EnumRank> descriptions [n]. EnumRank) swap = true;
35 break;
36}
37
38 if (swap)
39 {
40 temp = descriptions [m];
41 descriptions [m] = descriptions [n];
42 descriptions [n] = temp;
43}
44}
45}
46
47 return descriptions;
48}