How to set space on Enum

Question

I want to set the space on my enum. Here is my code sample:

public enum category
{
    goodBoy=1,
    BadBoy
}

I want to set

Answer 1

I used Regex to split the values by capital letter and then immediately join into a string with a space between each string in the returned array.

string.Join(" ", Regex.Split(v.ToString(), @"(?<!^)(?=[A-Z])"));

First get the values of the enum:

var values = Enum.GetValues(typeof(Category));

Then loop through the values and use the code above to get the values:

var ret = new Dictionary<int, string>();

foreach (Category v in values)
{
   ret.Add((int)v, string.Join(" ", Regex.Split(v.ToString(), @"(?<!^)(?=[A-Z])")));
} 

In my case I needed a dictionary with the value and display name so that it why I have the variable "ret"

Answer 2

Based on Smac's suggestion, I've added an extension method for ease, since I'm seeing a lot of people still having issues with this.

I've used the annotations and a helper extension method.

Enum definition:

internal enum TravelClass
{
    [Description("Economy With Restrictions")]
    EconomyWithRestrictions,
    [Description("Economy Without Restrictions")]
    EconomyWithoutRestrictions
}

Extension class definition:

internal static class Extensions
{
    public static string ToDescription(this Enum value)
    {
        FieldInfo field = value.GetType().GetField(value.ToString());
        DescriptionAttribute attribute = Attribute.GetCustomAttribute(field, typeof(DescriptionAttribute)) as DescriptionAttribute;
        return attribute == null ? value.ToString() : attribute.Description;
    }
}

Example using the enum:

var enumValue = TravelClass.EconomyWithRestrictions;
string stringValue = enumValue.ToDescription();

This will return Economy With Restrictions.

Hope this helps people out as a complete example. Once again, credit goes to Smac for this idea, I just completed it with the extension method.

Answer 3

You cannot have enum with spaces in .Net. This was possible with earlier versions of VB and C++ of course, but not any longer. I remember that in VB6 I used to enclose them in square brackets, but not in C#.

Answer 4

You can decorate your Enum values with DataAnnotations, so the following is true:

using System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations;

public enum Boys
{
    [Display(Name="Good Boy")]
    GoodBoy,
    [Display(Name="Bad Boy")]
    BadBoy
}

I'm not sure what UI Framework you're using for your controls, but ASP.NET MVC can read DataAnnotations when you type HTML.LabelFor in your Razor views.

Here' a Extension method

If you are not using Razor views or if you want to get the names in code:

public class EnumExtention
{
    public Dictionary<int, string> ToDictionary(Enum myEnum)
    {
        var myEnumType = myEnum.GetType();
        var names = myEnumType.GetFields()
            .Where(m => m.GetCustomAttribute<DisplayAttribute>() != null)
            .Select(e => e.GetCustomAttribute<DisplayAttribute>().Name);
        var values = Enum.GetValues(myEnumType).Cast<int>();
        return names.Zip(values, (n, v) => new KeyValuePair<int, string>(v, n))
            .ToDictionary(kv => kv.Key, kv => kv.Value);
    }
}

Then use it:

Boys.GoodBoy.ToDictionary()

Answer 5

using System.ComponentModel;

then...

public enum category
{
    [Description("Good Boy")]
    goodboy,
    [Description("Bad Boy")]
    badboy
}

Solved!!

Answer 6

Developing on user14570's (nice) workaround referred above, here's a complete example:

    public enum MyEnum
    {
        My_Word,
        Another_One_With_More_Words,
        One_More,
        We_Are_Done_At_Last
    }

    internal class Program
    {
        private static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            IEnumerable<MyEnum> values = Enum.GetValues(typeof(MyEnum)).Cast<MyEnum>();
            List<string> valuesWithSpaces = new List<string>(values.Select(v => v.ToString().Replace("_", " ")));

            foreach (MyEnum enumElement in values)
                Console.WriteLine($"Name: {enumElement}, Value: {(int)enumElement}");

            Console.WriteLine();
            foreach (string stringRepresentation in valuesWithSpaces)
                Console.WriteLine(stringRepresentation);
        }
    }

Output: