how to display Description of enum item in popup menu in property grid C#
See the question and my original answer on StackOverflowThe property grid doesn't support that natively, you need to add a custom UITypeEditor. Ideally, you also need a custom TypeConverter to support the Description attribute as a display, and also allow keyboard input using the Description. Here is how you can declare your enum type:
[Editor(typeof(MyEnumEditor), typeof(UITypeEditor))]
[TypeConverter(typeof(MyEnumConverter<phone>))]
public enum phone
{
[Description("Home Number")]
homeNumber,
[Description("Mobile Number")]
mobileNumber,
}
And here is the code:
public class MyEnumEditor : UITypeEditor
{
private IWindowsFormsEditorService _editorService;
private bool _cancel;
public override UITypeEditorEditStyle GetEditStyle(ITypeDescriptorContext context)
{
return UITypeEditorEditStyle.DropDown;
}
public override object EditValue(ITypeDescriptorContext context, IServiceProvider provider, object value)
{
_editorService = (IWindowsFormsEditorService)provider.GetService(typeof(IWindowsFormsEditorService));
ListBox listBox = new ListBox();
listBox.DisplayMember = "Name"; // EnumItem 'Name' property
listBox.IntegralHeight = true;
listBox.SelectionMode = SelectionMode.One;
listBox.MouseClick += OnListBoxMouseClick;
listBox.KeyDown += OnListBoxKeyDown;
listBox.PreviewKeyDown += OnListBoxPreviewKeyDown;
Type enumType = value.GetType();
if (!enumType.IsEnum)
throw new InvalidOperationException();
foreach (FieldInfo fi in enumType.GetFields(BindingFlags.Public | BindingFlags.Static))
{
EnumItem item = new EnumItem();
item.Value = fi.GetValue(null);
object[] atts = fi.GetCustomAttributes(typeof(DescriptionAttribute), true);
if (atts != null && atts.Length > 0)
{
item.Name = ((DescriptionAttribute)atts[0]).Description;
}
else
{
item.Name = fi.Name;
}
int index = listBox.Items.Add(item);
if (fi.Name == value.ToString())
{
listBox.SetSelected(index, true);
}
}
_cancel = false;
_editorService.DropDownControl(listBox);
if (_cancel || listBox.SelectedIndices.Count == 0)
return value;
return ((EnumItem)listBox.SelectedItem).Value;
}
private class EnumItem
{
public object Value { get; set; }
public string Name { get; set; }
}
private void OnListBoxPreviewKeyDown(object sender, PreviewKeyDownEventArgs e)
{
if (e.KeyCode == Keys.Escape)
{
_cancel = true;
_editorService.CloseDropDown();
}
}
private void OnListBoxMouseClick(object sender, MouseEventArgs e)
{
int index = ((ListBox)sender).IndexFromPoint(e.Location);
if (index >= 0)
{
_editorService.CloseDropDown();
}
}
private void OnListBoxKeyDown(object sender, KeyEventArgs e)
{
if (e.KeyCode == Keys.Enter)
{
_editorService.CloseDropDown();
}
}
}
public class MyEnumConverter<TEnum> : TypeConverter where TEnum : struct
{
public override bool CanConvertFrom(ITypeDescriptorContext context, Type sourceType)
{
return sourceType == typeof(string) || base.CanConvertFrom(context, sourceType);
}
public override object ConvertFrom(ITypeDescriptorContext context, CultureInfo culture, object value)
{
string svalue = string.Format(culture, "{0}", value);
TEnum e;
if (Enum.TryParse(svalue, out e))
return e;
foreach (FieldInfo fi in typeof(TEnum).GetFields(BindingFlags.Public | BindingFlags.Static))
{
object[] atts = fi.GetCustomAttributes(typeof(DescriptionAttribute), true);
if (atts != null && atts.Length > 0)
{
if (string.Compare(((DescriptionAttribute)atts[0]).Description, svalue, StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase) == 0)
return fi.GetValue(null);
}
}
return base.ConvertFrom(context, culture, value);
}
public override bool CanConvertTo(ITypeDescriptorContext context, Type destinationType)
{
return destinationType == typeof(string) || base.CanConvertTo(context, destinationType);
}
public override object ConvertTo(ITypeDescriptorContext context, CultureInfo culture, object value, Type destinationType)
{
if (destinationType == typeof(string))
{
string svalue = string.Format(culture, "{0}", value);
foreach (FieldInfo fi in typeof(TEnum).GetFields(BindingFlags.Public | BindingFlags.Static))
{
object[] atts = fi.GetCustomAttributes(typeof(DescriptionAttribute), true);
if (atts != null && atts.Length > 0)
{
if (string.Compare(fi.Name, svalue, StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase) == 0)
return ((DescriptionAttribute)atts[0]).Description;
}
}
}
return base.ConvertTo(context, culture, value, destinationType);
}
}
NOTE: this code doesn't support enums with the Flags attribute, it could be modified to do so.