c# - 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);       
  }
}