How to get Custom Attribute values for enums?

Question

I have an enum where each member has a custom attribute applied to it. How can I retrieve the value stored in each attribute?

Right now I do this:

var attributes = typeof ( EffectType ).GetCustomAttributes ( false );
foreach ( object attribute in attributes )
{
    GPUShaderAttribute attr = ( GPUShaderAttribute ) attribute;
    if ( attr != null )
        return attr.GPUShader;
}
return 0;

Another issue is, if it's not found, what should I return? 0 is implcity convertible to any enum, right? That's why I returned that.

Forgot to mention, the above code returns 0 for every enum member.

Answer 1

Try using a generic method

Attribute:

class DayAttribute : Attribute
{
    public string Name { get; private set; }

    public DayAttribute(string name)
    {
        this.Name = name;
    }
}

Enum:

enum Days
{
    [Day("Saturday")]
    Sat,
    [Day("Sunday")]
    Sun,
    [Day("Monday")]
    Mon, 
    [Day("Tuesday")]
    Tue,
    [Day("Wednesday")]
    Wed,
    [Day("Thursday")]
    Thu, 
    [Day("Friday")]
    Fri
}

Generic method:

        public static TAttribute GetAttribute<TAttribute>(this Enum value)
        where TAttribute : Attribute
    {
        var enumType = value.GetType();
        var name = Enum.GetName(enumType, value);
        return enumType.GetField(name).GetCustomAttributes(false).OfType<TAttribute>().SingleOrDefault();
    }

Invoke:

        static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        var day = Days.Mon;
        Console.WriteLine(day.GetAttribute<DayAttribute>().Name);
        Console.ReadLine();
    }

Result:

Monday