Associating enums with strings in C#

Question

I know the following is not possible because it has to be an int

enum GroupTypes
{
    TheGroup = "OEM",
    TheOtherGroup = "CMB"
}

From my database I get a field with incomprehensive codes (the OEM and CMB's). I would want to make this field into an enum or something else understandable. Because the target is readability the solution should be terse.
What other options do I have?

Answer 1

Here is the extension method that I used to get the enum value as string. First here is the enum.

public enum DatabaseEnvironment
{
    [Description("AzamSharpBlogDevDatabase")]
    Development = 1, 
    [Description("AzamSharpBlogQADatabase")]
    QualityAssurance = 2, 
    [Description("AzamSharpBlogTestDatabase")] 
    Test = 3
}

The Description attribute came from System.ComponentModel.

And here is my extension method:

public static string GetValueAsString(this DatabaseEnvironment environment) 
{
    // get the field 
    var field = environment.GetType().GetField(environment.ToString());
    var customAttributes = field.GetCustomAttributes(typeof (DescriptionAttribute), false);

    if(customAttributes.Length > 0)
    {
        return (customAttributes[0] as DescriptionAttribute).Description;  
    }
    else
    {
        return environment.ToString(); 
    }
}

Now, you can access the enum as string value using the following code:

[TestFixture]
public class when_getting_value_of_enum
{
    [Test]
    public void should_get_the_value_as_string()
    {
        Assert.AreEqual("AzamSharpBlogTestDatabase",DatabaseEnvironment.Test.GetValueAsString());  
    }
}

Answer 2

enums in C# are restricted to underlying integer numeric types (byte, sbyte, short, ushort, int, uint, long, and ulong). You can't associate them with a character or string based underlying value.

A different approach might be to define a dictionary of type Dictionary<string, string>.

Answer 3

I've done something like this;

public enum BusinessUnits
{
    NEW_EQUIPMENT = 0,
    USED_EQUIPMENT = 1,
    RENTAL_EQUIPMENT = 2,
    PARTS = 3,
    SERVICE = 4,
    OPERATOR_TRAINING = 5
}

public class BusinessUnitService
{
    public static string StringBusinessUnits(BusinessUnits BU)
    {
        switch (BU)
        {
            case BusinessUnits.NEW_EQUIPMENT: return "NEW EQUIPMENT";
            case BusinessUnits.USED_EQUIPMENT: return "USED EQUIPMENT";
            case BusinessUnits.RENTAL_EQUIPMENT: return "RENTAL EQUIPMENT";
            case BusinessUnits.PARTS: return "PARTS";
            case BusinessUnits.SERVICE: return "SERVICE";
            case BusinessUnits.OPERATOR_TRAINING: return "OPERATOR TRAINING";
            default: return String.Empty;
        }
    }
}

Call it with this;

BusinessUnitService.StringBusinessUnits(BusinessUnits.PARTS)

Answer 4

Use a class.

Edit: Better example

class StarshipType
{
    private string _Name;
    private static List<StarshipType> _StarshipTypes = new List<StarshipType>();

    public static readonly StarshipType Ultralight = new StarshipType("Ultralight");
    public static readonly StarshipType Light = new StarshipType("Light");
    public static readonly StarshipType Mediumweight = new StarshipType("Mediumweight");
    public static readonly StarshipType Heavy = new StarshipType("Heavy");
    public static readonly StarshipType Superheavy = new StarshipType("Superheavy");

    public string Name
    {
        get { return _Name; }
        private set { _Name = value; }
    }

    public static IList<StarshipType> StarshipTypes
    {
        get { return _StarshipTypes; }
    }

    private StarshipType(string name, int systemRatio)
    {
        Name = name;
        _StarshipTypes.Add(this);
    }

    public static StarshipType Parse(string toParse)
    {
        foreach (StarshipType s in StarshipTypes)
        {
            if (toParse == s.Name)
                return s;
        }
        throw new FormatException("Could not parse string.");
    }
}

Answer 5

A small tweak to Glennular Extension method, so you could use the extension on other things than just ENUM's;

using System;
using System.ComponentModel;
namespace Extensions {
    public static class T_Extensions {
        /// <summary>
        /// Gets the Description Attribute Value
        /// </summary>
        /// <typeparam name="T">Entity Type</typeparam>
        /// <param name="val">Variable</param>
        /// <returns>The value of the Description Attribute or an Empty String</returns>
        public static string Description<T>(this T t) {
            DescriptionAttribute[] attributes = (DescriptionAttribute[])t.GetType().GetField(t.ToString()).GetCustomAttributes(typeof(DescriptionAttribute), false);
            return attributes.Length > 0 ? attributes[0].Description : string.Empty;
        }
    }
}

Or Using Linq

using System;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Linq;

namespace Extensions {


public static class T_Extensions {
        public static string Description<T>(this T t) =>
            ((DescriptionAttribute[])t
            ?.GetType()
            ?.GetField(t?.ToString())
            ?.GetCustomAttributes(typeof(DescriptionAttribute), false))
            ?.Select(a => a?.Description)
            ?.FirstOrDefault() 
            ?? string.Empty;  
    }
}

Answer 6

Based in other opinions, this is what I come up with. This approach avoids having to type .Value where you want to get the constant value.

I have a base class for all string enums like this:

using System;
using Newtonsoft.Json;

[JsonConverter(typeof(ConstantConverter))]
public class StringEnum: IConvertible
{
    public string Value { get; set; }

    protected StringEnum(string value)
    {
        Value = value;
    }

    public static implicit operator string(StringEnum c)
    {
        return c.Value;
    }
    public string ToString(IFormatProvider provider)
    {
        return Value;
    }

    public TypeCode GetTypeCode()
    {
        throw new NotImplementedException();
    }

    public bool ToBoolean(IFormatProvider provider)
    {
        throw new NotImplementedException();
    }
    //The same for all the rest of IConvertible methods
}

The JsonConverter is like this:

using System;
using Newtonsoft.Json;

class ConstantConverter : JsonConverter
{
    public override bool CanConvert(Type objectType)
    {
        return true;
    }

    public override object ReadJson(JsonReader reader, Type objectType, object existingValue, JsonSerializer serializer)
    {
        throw new NotImplementedException();
    }

    public override void WriteJson(JsonWriter writer, object value, JsonSerializer serializer)
    {
        if (value == null)
        {
            serializer.Serialize(writer, null);
        }
        else
        {
            serializer.Serialize(writer, value.ToString());
        }
    }
}

And an actual string enum will be something like this:

public sealed class Colors : StringEnum
{
    public static Colors Red { get { return new Catalog("Red"); } }
    public static Colors Yellow { get { return new Catalog("Yellow"); } }
    public static Colors White { get { return new Catalog("White"); } }

    private Colors(string value) : base(value) { }
}

And with this, you can just use Color.Red to even serialize to json without using the Value property