EnumDesc 0.1.1

EnumDesc

A library that automatically adds support for getting description of enum in c#.

When you have an enum and it has at least one member marked with the Description attribute, EnumDesc will automatically generate an extension method named GetDescription for it.

And then EnumDesc will generate an Enum<T> class that provides GetDescriptionList and GetDescriptionDic methods.

Get Started

EnumDesc can be installed using the Nuget package manager or the dotnet CLI.

dotnet add package EnumDesc

Example

For example, there is a enum named Colour:

public enum Colour
{
    [Description("Color Blue")]
    Blue,

    [Description("Color Red")]
    Red
}

The EnumDesc will generate a file named EnumDesc.g.cs:

namespace YourNamespace
{
    public static partial class ColourExtensions
    {
        public static string GetDescription(this Colour colour)
        {
            return colour switch
            {
                Colour.Blue => "Color Blue",
                Colour.Red => "Color Red",
                _ => string.Empty
            };
        }
    }

    public partial class Enum<T> where T : Enum
    {
        public static IEnumerable<(T value, string desc)> GetDescriptionList()
        {
            var enumType = typeof(T);

            object result = Enumerable.Empty<(T value, string desc)>();

            if (enumType.Equals(typeof(Colour)))
            {
                result = new List<(string desc, Colour value)>()
                {
                    (Colour.Blue, "Color Blue"),
                    (Colour.Red, "Color Red"),
                };
            }
            else
            {
                throw new NotSupportedException($"No member in {enumType.FullName} has Description attribute.");
            }

            return (IEnumerable<(T value, string desc)>)result;
        }

        public static Dictionary<T, string> GetDescriptionDic()
        {
            var enumType = typeof(T);

            object result = new Dictionary<T, string>();

            if (enumType.Equals(typeof(Colour)))
            {
                result = new Dictionary<Colour, string>()
                {
                    [Colour.Blue] = "Color Blue",
                    [Colour.Red] = "Color Red",
                };
            }
            else
            {
                throw new NotSupportedException($"No member in {enumType.FullName} has Description attribute.");
            }

            return (Dictionary<T, string>)result;
        }
    }
}

Usage:

var blueDesc = Colour.Blue.GetDescription();
// "Color Blue"

IEnumerable<(Colour color, string desc)> descList = Enum<Colour>.GetDescriptionList();
// [(Colour.Blue, "Color Blue"), (Colour.Red, "Color Red")]

Dictionary<Colour, string> descDic = Enum<Colour>.GetDescriptionDic();
// {Colour.Blue: "Color Blue"， Colour.Red: "Color Red"}

Benchmarks

GetDescription()

BenchmarkDotNet=v0.13.1, OS=Windows 10.0.22000
AMD Ryzen 7 5800H with Radeon Graphics, 1 CPU, 16 logical and 8 physical cores
.NET SDK=6.0.200
  [Host]     : .NET 6.0.2 (6.0.222.6406), X64 RyuJIT
  DefaultJob : .NET 6.0.2 (6.0.222.6406), X64 RyuJIT

Enum<T>.GetDescriptionList()

BenchmarkDotNet=v0.13.1, OS=Windows 10.0.22000
AMD Ryzen 7 5800H with Radeon Graphics, 1 CPU, 16 logical and 8 physical cores
.NET SDK=6.0.200
  [Host]     : .NET 6.0.2 (6.0.222.6406), X64 RyuJIT
  DefaultJob : .NET 6.0.2 (6.0.222.6406), X64 RyuJIT

Enum<T>.GetDescriptionDic()

BenchmarkDotNet=v0.13.1, OS=Windows 10.0.22000
AMD Ryzen 7 5800H with Radeon Graphics, 1 CPU, 16 logical and 8 physical cores
.NET SDK=6.0.200
  [Host]     : .NET 6.0.2 (6.0.222.6406), X64 RyuJIT
  DefaultJob : .NET 6.0.2 (6.0.222.6406), X64 RyuJIT