Localizing enum descriptions attributes

Question

What is the best way to localize enumeration descriptions in .net?

(See Adding descriptions to enumeration constants for enum description example)

Ideally I would like something that uses ResourceManager and resource files so it fits in with how other areas of the app are localized.

Answer 1

This is what I ended up going with, I didn't see the value in adding a custom attribute class to hold a resource key and then looking up into the resource files - why not just use the enums typename + value as a resource key?

using System; using System.Resources; using System.Reflection;  public class MyClass {   enum SomeEnum {Small,Large};    private ResourceManager _resources = new ResourceManager("MyClass.myResources",                           System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly());        public string EnumDescription(Enum enumerator)   {          string rk = String.Format("{0}.{1}",enumerator.GetType(),enumerator);     string localizedDescription = _resources.GetString(rk);      if (localizedDescription == null)        {        // A localized string was not found so you can either just return        // the enums value - most likely readable and a good fallback.        return enumerator.ToString();         // Or you can return the full resourceKey which will be helpful when        // editing the resource files(e.g. MyClass+SomeEnum.Small)         // return resourceKey;        }     else        return localizedDescription;     }     void SomeRoutine()   {     // Looks in resource file for a string matching the key     // "MyClass+SomeEnum.Large"     string s1 = EnumDescription(SomeEnum.Large);          } } 

Answer 2

My solution, using native decription attribute:

public class LocalizedEnumAttribute : DescriptionAttribute {     private PropertyInfo _nameProperty;     private Type _resourceType;      public LocalizedEnumAttribute(string displayNameKey)         : base(displayNameKey)     {      }      public Type NameResourceType     {         get         {             return _resourceType;         }         set         {             _resourceType = value;              _nameProperty = _resourceType.GetProperty(this.Description, BindingFlags.Static | BindingFlags.Public);         }     }      public override string Description     {         get         {             //check if nameProperty is null and return original display name value             if (_nameProperty == null)             {                 return base.Description;             }              return (string)_nameProperty.GetValue(_nameProperty.DeclaringType, null);         }     } }  public static class EnumExtender {     public static string GetLocalizedDescription(this Enum @enum)     {         if (@enum == null)             return null;          string description = @enum.ToString();          FieldInfo fieldInfo = @enum.GetType().GetField(description);         DescriptionAttribute[] attributes = (DescriptionAttribute[])fieldInfo.GetCustomAttributes(typeof(DescriptionAttribute), false);          if (attributes.Any())             return attributes[0].Description;          return description;     } } 

The Enum declaration

public enum MyEnum {     [LocalizedEnum("ResourceName", NameResourceType = typeof(ResourceType))]     Test = 0 } 

Then call MyEnumInstance.GetLocalizedDescription()