我创建了一个反向扩展方法来将描述转换回enum值:

public static T ToEnumValue<T>(this string enumerationDescription) where T : struct
{
    var type = typeof(T);

    if (!type.IsEnum)
        throw new ArgumentException("ToEnumValue<T>(): Must be of enum type", "T");

    foreach (object val in System.Enum.GetValues(type))
        if (val.GetDescription<T>() == enumerationDescription)
            return (T)val;

    throw new ArgumentException("ToEnumValue<T>(): Invalid description for enum " + type.Name, "enumerationDescription");
}

我用扩展方法做到这一点:

public enum ErrorLevel
{
  None,
  Low,
  High,
  SoylentGreen
}

public static class ErrorLevelExtensions
{
  public static string ToFriendlyString(this ErrorLevel me)
  {
    switch(me)
    {
      case ErrorLevel.None:
        return "Everything is OK";
      case ErrorLevel.Low:
        return "SNAFU, if you know what I mean.";
      case ErrorLevel.High:
        return "Reaching TARFU levels";
      case ErrorLevel.SoylentGreen:
        return "ITS PEOPLE!!!!";
      default:
        return "Get your damn dirty hands off me you FILTHY APE!";
    }
  }
}

以上建议的干净总结与样本:

namespace EnumExtensions {

using System;
using System.Reflection;

public class TextAttribute : Attribute {
   public string Text;
   public TextAttribute( string text ) {
      Text = text;
   }//ctor
}// class TextAttribute

public static class EnumExtender {

public static string ToText( this Enum enumeration ) {

   MemberInfo[] memberInfo = enumeration.GetType().GetMember( enumeration.ToString() );

   if ( memberInfo != null && memberInfo.Length > 0 ) {

      object[] attributes = memberInfo[ 0 ].GetCustomAttributes( typeof(TextAttribute),  false );

      if ( attributes != null && attributes.Length > 0 ) {
         return ( (TextAttribute)attributes[ 0 ] ).Text;
      }

   }//if

   return enumeration.ToString();

}//ToText

}//class EnumExtender

}//namespace

用法:

using System;
using EnumExtensions;

class Program {

public enum Appearance {

  [Text( "left-handed" ) ]
  Left,

  [Text( "right-handed" ) ]
  Right,

}//enum

static void Main( string[] args ) {

   var appearance = Appearance.Left;
   Console.WriteLine( appearance.ToText() );

}//Main

}//class

这是对Ray Booysen的代码的更新，使用通用的GetCustomAttributes方法和LINQ使事情变得更整洁。

    /// <summary>
    /// Gets the value of the <see cref="T:System.ComponentModel.DescriptionAttribute"/> on an struct, including enums.  
    /// </summary>
    /// <typeparam name="T">The type of the struct.</typeparam>
    /// <param name="enumerationValue">A value of type <see cref="T:System.Enum"/></param>
    /// <returns>If the struct has a Description attribute, this method returns the description.  Otherwise it just calls ToString() on the struct.</returns>
    /// <remarks>Based on http://stackoverflow.com/questions/479410/enum-tostring/479417#479417, but useful for any struct.</remarks>
    public static string GetDescription<T>(this T enumerationValue) where T : struct
    {
        return enumerationValue.GetType().GetMember(enumerationValue.ToString())
                .SelectMany(mi => mi.GetCustomAttributes<DescriptionAttribute>(false),
                    (mi, ca) => ca.Description)
                .FirstOrDefault() ?? enumerationValue.ToString();
    }   

不要使用枚举，使用静态类。

取代

private enum PublishStatuses{
    NotCompleted,
    Completed,
    Error
};

with

private static class PublishStatuses{
    public static readonly string NotCompleted = "Not Completed";
    public static readonly string Completed = "Completed";
    public static readonly string Error = "Error";
};

它是这样使用的

PublishStatuses.NotCompleted; // "Not Completed"

使用顶级“扩展方法”解决方案的问题:

私有枚举通常在另一个类中使用。扩展方法解决方案在那里无效，因为它必须在它自己的类中。这个解决方案可以是私有的，并嵌入到另一个类中。

我已经迟到7年了:-)但我相信这个话题经常被访问。所以我想在咖啡里加一点糖:

那么“F”格式字符串说明符呢?

PublishStatusses[] ps = Enum.GetValues<PublishStatusses>();
ps.ToList().ForEach(c => Console.Write($"{c:F} "));

不需要任何显式的函数调用。

事实上，甚至不需要任何格式说明符。 在将变量赋值给字符串的情况下，ToString()执行以下工作:

string foo = PublishStatusses.Error.ToString(); // or ToString("F")

如果它要在CamelCase字符串的单词之间插入空格，你可以使用正则表达式:

Regex.Replace(foo, "(\\B[A-Z])", " $1")