How to bind a custom Enum description to a DataGrid

Question

Problem: I have an enumerated type which has description tags in the following style: [URL=\"http://xml.indelv.com/data-binding-enum.html\"]description tag tutorial[/URL] . I ha

Answer 1

Wrap them up on the fly and subtly change your handling of the SelectedItem (or whatever you are using)
My example uses the already present Description attribute.

public class DescriptiveEnum where T: struct
{
    private static readonly Dictionary descriptions 
        = new Dictionary();

    static DescriptiveEnum()
    {
        foreach (FieldInfo field in
            typeof(T).GetFields(BindingFlags.Static 
            | BindingFlags.GetField | BindingFlags.Public))
        {
        descriptions.Add((T)field.GetRawConstantValue(),
            LookupName(field));         
        }
    }

    public readonly T Value;

    public DescriptiveEnum(T value)
    {
        this.Value = value;     
    }

    public override string ToString()
    {
        string s;
        if (!descriptions.TryGetValue(this.Value, out s))
        {           
        // fall back for non declared fields
        s = this.Value.ToString();  
        descriptions[this.Value] = s;
        }
        return s;
    }

    private static string LookupName(FieldInfo field)        
    {
        object[] all = field.GetCustomAttributes(
             typeof(DescriptionAttribute), false);
        if (all.Length == 0)
            return field.Name; // fall back
        else
            return ((DescriptionAttribute)all[0])
                .Description; // only one needed
    }   

    public static BindingList> Make(
        IEnumerable source)
    {
        var list = new BindingList>();
        foreach (var x in source)
        list.Add(new DescriptiveEnum(x));
        return list;
    }
}

example usage:

public enum Foo
{
    [Description("flibble")]
    Bar,
    [Description("wobble")]
    Baz,
    // none present, will use the name
    Bat

}

Form f = new Form();
f.Controls.Add(new ListBox() 
{
    Dock = DockStyle.Fill,
    DataSource = DescriptiveEnum.Make(
       new Foo[] { Foo.Bar, Foo.Baz, Foo.Bat }),
});
Application.Run(f);