From 2b087feceb5f7a852e372ad3e704c01c086caae0 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Neil Brommer <NeilBrommer@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Thu, 13 Jul 2023 16:33:32 -0700
Subject: [PATCH] Add post on user friendly C# enums

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 src/posts/UserFriendlyEnums.md | 70 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 70 insertions(+)
 create mode 100644 src/posts/UserFriendlyEnums.md

diff --git a/src/posts/UserFriendlyEnums.md b/src/posts/UserFriendlyEnums.md
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+---
+title: User Friendly C# Enums
+description: A couple of extension methods to make getting user friendly information from attributes on enums
+tags: [ Programming, C# ]
+---
+
+These extension methods will get the name and description from the `[Display]` attribute on enums. This allows you to add user-friendly names and descriptions on the enums themselves.
+
+## How to use
+
+```csharp
+public enum MyEnum
+{
+	[Display(Name = "First Value", Description = "First value description")]
+	FirstValue,
+	[Display(Name = "Second Value")]
+	SecondValue,
+	ThirdValue
+}
+
+MyEnum.FirstValue.GetDisplayName(); // "First Value"
+MyEnum.ThirdValue.GetDisplayName(); // "ThirdValue"
+
+MyEnum.FirstValue.GetDisplayDescription(); // "First value description"
+MyEnum.SecondValue.GetDisplayDescription(); // null
+MyEnum.ThirdValue.GetDisplayDescription(); // null
+
+// Generate a list of options from an enum
+IList<string> options = Enum.GetValues<MyEnum>()
+	.Select(e => e.GetDisplayName())
+	.ToList();
+```
+
+## Code
+
+```csharp
+using System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations;
+using System.Reflection;
+
+public static class Extensions
+{
+	#region Enum DisplayAttribute
+
+	/// <summary>
+	/// Gets the name from the DisplayAttribute or returns the enum as a string
+	/// if there is no DisplayAttribute name
+	/// </summary>
+	public static string GetDisplayName(this Enum value)
+	{
+		return value.GetType()
+			.GetMember(value.ToString())
+			.First()
+			.GetCustomAttribute<DisplayAttribute>()
+			?.Name
+			?? value.ToString();
+	}
+
+	/// <summary>Gets the description from the DisplayAttribute</summary>
+	public static string? GetDisplayDescription(this Enum value)
+	{
+		return value.GetType()
+			.GetMember(value.ToString())
+			.FirstOrDefault()
+			?.GetCustomAttribute<DisplayAttribute>()
+			?.Description;
+	}
+
+	#endregion
+}
+```