How to localize an enumeration and use something similar to Html.SelectListFor <T>

Question

Let's say that I got the following class and enumeration:

public class MyModel { [DisplayName("Min egenskap")] public MyEnum TheProperty {get;set;} } public enum MyEnum { [DisplayName("Inga från Sverige")] OneValue, [DisplayName("Ett annat värde")] AnotherValue } 

The above code does not work because DisplayNameAttribute cannot be used for enumerations. Is there any other attribute that can be used?

What I want to do is create a nice html select tag using something like Html.SelectListFor(m => m.TheProperty) . The list will use DisplayNameAttribute or a similar attribute during generation.

Required Result:

 <select name="TheProperty"> <option value="OneValue">Inga från Sverige</option> <option value="AnotherValue" selected="selected">Ett annat värde</option> </select> 

Answer 1

An example of how to do this is to use the [Description] attribute in your enumeration:

 public enum DaysOfWeek { [Description("Monday")] Monday = 1, [Description("Tuesday")] Tuesday = 2 } 

Then create this EnumerationHelper class that will allow you to get the Description attribute of your enumeration:

 public static class EnumerationHelper { //Transforms an enumeration description into a string public static string Description<TEnum>(this TEnum enumObject) { Type type = enumObject.GetType(); MemberInfo[] memInfo = type.GetMember(enumObject.ToString()); if(memInfo != null && memInfo.Length > 0) { DescriptionAttribute[] attributes = (DescriptionAttribute[])memInfo[0].GetCustomAttributes(typeof(DescriptionAttribute), false); if (attributes.Length > 0) { return attributes[0].Description; } } return enumObject.ToString(); } } 

You can then query your enum class to get the value and description, then create a SelectList. You must reference the EnumerationHelper in this class:

 var listOfDaysOfWeek = (from DaysOfWeek d in Enum.GetValues(typeof(DaysOfWeek)) select new { ID = d, Description = d.Description() }); viewModel.selectListDaysOfWeek = new SelectList(listOfDaysOfWeek, "ID", "Description"); 

And finally, in your opinion:

 <%: Html.DropDownListFor(m => m.DayOfWeek, Model.DaysOfWeek) %> 

Hope this helps.

Answer 2

I wanted to display Enum in the view, so I made a similar Html helper:

  /// <summary> /// Returns the [Description] value of a Enum member. /// </summary> /// <typeparam name="TModel"></typeparam> /// <typeparam name="TResult"></typeparam> /// <param name="helper"></param> /// <param name="expression"></param> /// <returns></returns> public static MvcHtmlString DisplayEnumFor<TModel, TResult>(this HtmlHelper<TModel> helper, Expression<Func<TModel, TResult>> expression) where TResult : struct { TResult value = expression.Compile().Invoke(helper.ViewData.Model); string propName = ExpressionHelper.GetExpressionText(expression); var description = typeof(TResult).GetMember(value.ToString())[0] .GetCustomAttributes(typeof(DescriptionAttribute), true).FirstOrDefault(); if (description != null) { return MvcHtmlString.Create((description as DescriptionAttribute).Description); } return MvcHtmlString.Create(value.ToString()); } 

Using:

 @Html.DisplayEnumFor(m => m.SomeEnumProperty)