String representation of an Enum

Question

I have the following enumeration:

public enum AuthenticationMethod
{
    FORMS = 1,
    WINDOWSAUTHENTICATION = 2,
    SINGLESIGNON = 3
}

T

Answer 1

I use an extension method:

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

Now decorate the enum with:

public enum AuthenticationMethod
{
    [Description("FORMS")]
    FORMS = 1,
    [Description("WINDOWSAUTHENTICATION")]
    WINDOWSAUTHENTICATION = 2,
    [Description("SINGLESIGNON ")]
    SINGLESIGNON = 3
}

When you call

AuthenticationMethod.FORMS.ToDescription() you will get "FORMS".