Enum description generator

This generates a GetDescription method for Enum

Get Started

All enums with GenerateEnumDescriptorAttribute will be selected to process

You can customize the value using DescriptionAttribute

Installing

dotnet add package PlusUltra.EnumDescriptor.Generator

Decorating enums

[GenerateEnumDescriptor]
public enum MyEnum
{
    [Description("Custom 1")]
    Value1,
    Value2,
    [Description("Custom Value N")]
    ValueN
}

This example will generate:

namespace System
{
    public static class EnumStringExtensions
    {   
        public static string GetDescription(this Namespace.MyEnum value)
        {
            return value switch
            {
                SampleConsole.MyEnum.Value1 => "Custom 1",
                SampleConsole.MyEnum.Value2 => nameof(SampleConsole.MyEnum.Value2),
                SampleConsole.MyEnum.ValueN => "Custom Value N",
                _ => throw new ArgumentException(message: "Invalid enum value", paramName: nameof(value))
            };
        }
    }
}

Now you can use GetDescription instead of ToString;

MyEnum value = MyEnum.Value1;
Console.WriteLine(value.GetDescription());

Materials

• https://github.com/dotnet/roslyn/blob/main/docs/features/source-generators.cookbook.md
• https://www.infoq.com/articles/CSharp-Source-Generator/
• https://levelup.gitconnected.com/four-ways-to-generate-code-in-c-including-source-generators-in-net-5-9e6817db425
• https://github.com/meziantou/Meziantou.Framework/tree/main/src/Meziantou.Framework.FastEnumToStringGenerator