Enum to String Source Generator

The source generator generates a GetDescription method for enumerations that have the [GenerateEnumDescription] defined

Get Started

Add a reference in your project to the EnumDescriptorGenerator project and then set OutputItemType="Analyzer" and ReferenceOutputAssembly="false" as shown below.

<ItemGroup>
  <ProjectReference Include="..\..\src\EnumDescriptorGenerator\EnumDescriptorGenerator.csproj"
					OutputItemType="Analyzer"
				  ReferenceOutputAssembly="false"/>
</ItemGroup>

All enums with [GenerateEnumDescription] will now be selected to be processed by the Source Generator

You can customize the enum value using the [Description("First Test Enum")] attribute. If none is set nameof(EnumExample.TestEnum.SecondTestEnum) will be returned

Example

[GenerateEnumDescription]
public enum TestEnum
{
	[Description("First Test Enum")]
	FirstTestEnum,
	SecondTestEnum,
	[Description("Third Test Enum")]
	ThirdTestEnum
}

This example will then generate the following code for you:

namespace System
{
    public static class EnumStringExtensions
    {

        public static string GetDescription(this EnumExample.TestEnum value)
        {
            return value switch
            {
                EnumExample.TestEnum.FirstTestEnum => "First Test Enum",
                EnumExample.TestEnum.SecondTestEnum => nameof(EnumExample.TestEnum.SecondTestEnum),
                EnumExample.TestEnum.ThirdTestEnum => "Third Test Enum",

                _ => value.ToString()
            };
        }

    }
}

To test the output, you can simply call GetDescription() as shown below

TestEnum.FirstTestEnum.GetDescription();