Display enum in ComboBox with spaces

Question

I have an enum, example:

enum MyEnum
{
My_Value_1,
My_Value_2
}

With :

comboBox1.DataSource = Enum.GetValues(typeof(MyEnum)         


        

Answer 1

If you are able to modify the code defining the enum, so you could add attributes to the values without modifying the actual enum values, then you could use this extension method.

/// 

/// Retrieve the description of the enum, e.g.
/// [Description("Bright Pink")]
/// BrightPink = 2,
/// 
/// 
/// The friendly description of the enum.
public static string GetDescription(this Enum value)
{
  Type type = value.GetType();

  MemberInfo[] memInfo = type.GetMember(value.ToString());

  if (memInfo != null && memInfo.Length > 0)
  {
    object[] attrs = memInfo[0].GetCustomAttributes(typeof(DescriptionAttribute), false);

    if (attrs != null && attrs.Length > 0)
    {
      return ((DescriptionAttribute)attrs[0]).Description;
    }
  }

  return value.ToString();
}