Question

Possible Duplicate:
C# Enums – can my enums have friendly names?
Cast string to enum with enum attribute

I have enum with byte values:

enum MarketingEventType : byte {MARKETING_CAMPAIGN, TELESALES, MARKETING_ACTIONS};

I would like to give for all element name, which I will get by ToSting() method.
For example:

MarketingEventType.TELESALES.ToString(); // I get "bla bla bla"
MarketingEventType.MARKETING_ACTIONS.ToString(); // I get "la la la"

It is possibe without change type of enum from BYTE to STRING?

Answer 1

You can’t set an enum type to string. Valid base types are byte, sbyte, short, ushort, int, uint, long, and ulong.

You can, however, use the Description attribute:

enum MarketingEventType
{
    [Description("bla bla bla")]
    TELESALES,
}

Retrieving the enum description is kind of a mess, but you can use this method (or even make an extension method out of it!):

public static string GetEnumDescription(Enum value)
{
    FieldInfo fi = value.GetType().GetField(value.ToString());

    DescriptionAttribute[] attributes =
        (DescriptionAttribute[])fi.GetCustomAttributes(
        typeof(DescriptionAttribute),
        false);

    if (attributes != null &&
        attributes.Length > 0)
        return attributes[0].Description;
    else
        return value.ToString();
}