Getting Description Attribute of a Generic Enum

Question

I\'m having some hard time with trying to be generic with enums. I\'ve read that it\'s not that simple, and I can\'t seem to find a solution.

I\'m trying to create a

Answer 1

Here, try this:

public static KeyValuePair> ConvertEnumWithDescription() where T : struct, IConvertible
    {
        if (!typeof(T).IsEnum)
        {
            throw new Exception("Type given T must be an Enum");
        }

        var enumType = typeof(T).ToString().Split('.').Last();
        var itemsList = Enum.GetValues(typeof(T))
              .Cast()
               .Select(x => new KeyValueDataItem
               {
                   Key = Convert.ToInt32(x),
                   Value = GetEnumDescription(x.ToString())
               })
               .ToList();

        var res = new KeyValuePair>(
            enumType, itemsList);
        return res;

    }

    public static string GetEnumDescription(string value)
    {
        Type type = typeof(T);
        var name = Enum.GetNames(type).Where(f => f.Equals(value, StringComparison.CurrentCultureIgnoreCase)).Select(d => d).FirstOrDefault();

        if (name == null)
        {
            return string.Empty;
        }
        var field = type.GetField(name);
        var customAttribute = field.GetCustomAttributes(typeof(DescriptionAttribute), false);
        return customAttribute.Length > 0 ? ((DescriptionAttribute)customAttribute[0]).Description : name;
}

Based on: http://www.extensionmethod.net/csharp/enum/getenumdescription