An attribute argument must be a constant expression, typeof expression or array creation expression of an attribute parameter type enum Description

Question

I am trying to have the Description of an enum pulled from the resx file, but I get the above error.

Here is my code:

public enum FinalStatus
{
    [Description(StringResources.MyStrings.Status_0)]
    Error = 0,
    [Description(StringResources.MyStrings.Status_1)]
    Ok = 1,
    [Description(StringResources.MyStrings.Status_5)]
    Warning = 2,
    [Description(StringResources.MyStrings.Status_4)]
    Unknown = 3
}

Solution

The error is correct; these values need to be constants. You'll need to change your Status_n definitions to something more like this:

namespace StringResources{
    public class MyStrings{
        public const string Status_0 = "0";
        public const string Status_1 = "1";
        public const string Status_4 = "4";
        public const string Status_5 = "5";
    }
}

Comments

[adelphia]

Thanks Adam. But I cannot find namespace StringResources. I created a resx file in VS and I see the xml format of the same: <data name="Status_0" xml:space="preserve"> <value>"Error: User action required. Expand row for details"</value> </data>

[Adam Rackis]

I think you may need to define these values differently. I don't think editing the code in the resx file is a good idea.