Add a Third Property To Enumeration Type in C#

We know, All the enum items have only two properties : value and name. Let's consider the following enum
public enum BackGroundCheckStatus : int
{
        NotStarted = 0,
        Created = 1,
        Pending = 2,
        Declined = 3,
        Approved = 4
}

Here the "Created " item of the above enum has only two properties : Name="Created " and Value="1". Now if anybody wants to add one more property to describe each item then he can do it using Attribute. For that

1. Declare an Attribute like

[AttributeUsage(AttributeTargets.Enum | AttributeTargets.Field, AllowMultiple = false)]
public sealed class EnumDescription : Attribute
{
        private string _description;
        public string Description
        {
            get
            {
                return this._description;
            }
        }

        public EnumDescription(string description)
            : base()
        {
            this._description = description;
        }
}

2. Modify the enum as follows

public enum BackGroundCheckStatus : int
{
        [EnumDescription("Not Started")]
        NotStarted = 0,
        [EnumDescription("Query Created")]
        Created = 1,
        [EnumDescription("Query Sent & Response Pending")]
        Pending = 2,
        [EnumDescription("Declined To Answer")]
        Declined = 3,
        [EnumDescription("Responsed")]
        Approved = 4
}

3. Add an extension function  as follows
public static class EnumExtension
{
        public static string ToDescription(this Enum value)
        {
            Type type = value.GetType();
            MemberInfo[] memInfo = type.GetMember(value.ToString());
            if (memInfo != null && memInfo.Length > 0)
            {
                object[] attrs = memInfo[0].GetCustomAttributes(
                typeof(EnumDescription),
                false);
                if (attrs != null && attrs.Length > 0)
                    return ((EnumDescription)attrs[0]).Description;
            }
            return value.ToString();
        }
}
4. Get the description of any item
string enumDescription=BackGroundCheckStatus.Pending.ToDescription();

That's all. Hope it will help. Thanks.

Extension Function For Enumeration Type in C#

I have the following enum
enum OrderStatus : int
{
        Draft = 1,
        Pending = 2,
        Approved = 3,
        Rejected = 4
}

Now if i want to get the enum value to a variable then i have to write the following line of code

int currentOrderStatus=(int)OrderStatus.Draft;

I can do the same thing in an alternative manner i.e by adding an extension function instead of explicit conversion. Here is the code for that

public static class EnumExtension
 {
        public static int ToInteger(this Enum value)
        {
            object objValue = Enum.Parse(value.GetType(), value.ToString());
            return (int)objValue;
        }
}

Now I can write

int currentOrderStatus=OrderStatus.Draft.ToInteger();

Happy coding.... Thanks