Converting Enums to Human Readable Values in C#

Enums, or enumerations, are a special “class” in C# that represents a group of constants. They are widely used for defining variable types that can hold a predefined set of values. However, when working with enums, converting their coded names into human-readable strings can pose a challenge. This post addresses this problem and provides a straightforward solution.

The Challenge of Enum Readability

Imagine you have an enum defined like this:

public enum SampleEnum
{
    ThisIsValueA,
    ThisIsValueB,
    AnotherValue
}

Using this enum, if you need to display ThisIsValueA in a user-friendly way in your application, you’d want it to appear as “This is Value A”. The challenge lies in the automatic conversion of these camel case naming conventions into clean, readable text.

The Solution: A Simple Wordify Method

To convert an enum value into a human-readable string, we can use a method called Wordify. This method takes a string passed in PascalCase (which is how enum names are typically defined) and separates the words with spaces where necessary.

Here’s a step-by-step breakdown:

Step 1: Implement the Wordify Method

You can implement the Wordify method in your code as shown below:

using System.Text.RegularExpressions;

public static string Wordify(string pascalCaseString)
{            
    Regex regex = new Regex("(?<=[a-z])(?<x>[A-Z])|(?<y>.)(?<x>[A-Z])(?=[a-z])");
    return regex.Replace(pascalCaseString, " ${x}");
}

Explanation:

• Regex Pattern: The regex pattern works by finding uppercase letters that are either preceded by a lowercase letter or followed by a lowercase letter. It ensures that acronyms (groups of uppercase letters) remain intact.
• Return Statement: The method replaces those matches with a space followed by the matched uppercase letter, thereby separating them into distinct words.

Step 2: Using the Wordify Method

To see the method in action, you can run the following code:

Console.WriteLine(Wordify(SampleEnum.ThisIsValueA.ToString()));

Output:

This line of code will output:

"This Is Value A"

Benefits of Using Wordify

• Simplicity: It’s a straightforward solution that requires minimal code.
• Avoid Attributes: This method is simpler and less redundant than defining Description attributes for enums, which can complicate your code unnecessarily.
• Direct Approach: It allows you to achieve human-readable enum names without additional overhead.

Conclusion

Converting enums to human-readable values in C# does not have to be complicated. By implementing the Wordify method, you can easily transform any PascalCase string into a user-friendly format in just a few lines of code, enhancing the clarity and usability of your applications. Try incorporating this method into your next project to streamline the process of displaying enum values to users.