Trying to work with @Html.CheckBox for to display text of enum

Question

I started doing this to display some checkboxes in my view: ``` @Html.LabelFor(m => m.MyEnum, T("Pick Your Poison"))

@for(int i = 0; i < Model.Alcohol.Count; i++) { @T(Model.Alcohol[i].Text) @Html.CheckBoxFor(m => Model.Alcohol[i].Selected) @Html.HiddenFor(m => Model.Alcohol[i].Value) }

``` PLEASE NOTE: The important thing here is the `@T` method, which is used to handle translations of the text into other languages. This works. I've got a simple `enum`, and some methods in the back end that turn it into text in the view. So, an `enum` such as: ``` public enum MyEnum { Beer = 1, Vodka = 2, Rum = 3 } ``` will display list of checkboxes with those 3 choices. In my ViewModel I do this: ``` Alcohol= Enum.GetValues(typeof(MyEnum)).Cast().Select(x => { return new SelectListItem { Text = x.ToString().ToUpper(), Value = ((int)x).ToString() }; }).ToList(); } ``` However, I want to have more descriptive text to accompany the checkbox. I would rather the `en…

Accepted Answer

I like using data annotations for this kind of thing. This prevents the craziness with trying to figure out a variable-to-readable text convention.

```
public enum MyEnum
{
    [Description("I like beer")]
    Beer = 1,
    [Description("I hate vodka")]
    Vodka = 2,
    [Description("Meh, rum")]
    Rum = 3
};
```

You can access the value at runtime using reflection:

```
MyEnum sampleEnum = MyEnum.Beer;
var attr = typeof(MyEnum)
    .GetMember(sampleEnum.ToString())
    .First()
    .GetCustomAttributes(typeof(DescriptionAttribute), false)
    .First() as DescriptionAttribute;
string description = attr.Description;
```

Of course, that's a bit verbose (and still needs error handling), but you can create an extension method to simplify the usage syntax:

```
public static string GetDescriptionOrDefault<T>(this T enumValue, string defaultValue = null)
{
    var attr = typeof(T)
        .GetMember(enumValue.ToString())
        .First()
        .GetCustomAttributes(typeof(DescriptionAttribute), false)
        .FirstOrDefault() as DescriptionAttribute;
    return attr == null ? (defaultValue ?? enumValue.ToString()) : attr.Description;
}
```

This would allow the view to write simply:

```
MyEnum sampleEnum = MyEnum.Beer;
string description = sampleEnum.GetDescriptionOrDefault();
```

Trying to work with @Html.CheckBox for to display text of enum

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