Is it better to make a method for returning a string from an Enum? or to have an extra string variable to hold the string value?

Question

Right now I have

    public enum EnumSize { Miniscule, Tiny, Small, Medium, Large, Huge, Giant }

and I want the string value returned so I made a switch statement to return the string value

    public string getSize()
    {
        string temp = "";
        switch (pSize)
        {
            case EnumSize.Miniscule: temp = "Miniscule"; break;
            case EnumSize.Tiny: temp = "Tiny"; break;
            case EnumSize.Small: temp = "Small"; break;
            case EnumSize.Medium: temp = "Medium"; break;
            case EnumSize.Large: temp = "Large"; break;
            case EnumSize.Huge: temp = "Huge"; break;
            case EnumSize.Giant: temp = "Giant"; break;
        }
        return temp;
    }

what are the disadvantages to doing it either way? and is there a better way? Thanks!

Answer 1

Your getSize() method can be reduced to:

public string getSize()
{
    return pSize.ToString();
}

Given that the method is really this simple, it seems rather pointless to provide this as a separate method. If you simply expose pSize as a property (or read-only property) the user can simply call ToString() on that property:

public EnumSize Size { get { return this.pSize; } }

Answer 2

If desired string valus are the same as enum values then ToString() method will be enough:

String temp = pSize.ToString();

if, however, you want to assign different names (e.g. localized names) to enum values, you can use extension methods:

public static class EnumSizeExtensions {
  public static String ToName(this EnumSize value) {
    switch (value) {
      case EnumSize.Miniscule: 
        return "My Miniscule size";
      case EnumSize.Tiny: 
        return "My Tiny size";
      case EnumSize.Small: 
        return "My Small size";
      case EnumSize.Medium:  
        return "My Medium size";
      case EnumSize.Large: 
        return "My Large size"; 
      case EnumSize.Huge: 
        return "My Huge size";
      case EnumSize.Giant: 
        return "My Giant size";
      default:
        return "Unknown size";
    }
  }
}

...

String temp = pSize.ToName();