Get Enum from Description attribute

public static class EnumEx
{
    public static T GetValueFromDescription<T>(string description) where T : Enum
    {
        foreach(var field in typeof(T).GetFields())
        {
            if (Attribute.GetCustomAttribute(field,
            typeof(DescriptionAttribute)) is DescriptionAttribute attribute)
            {
                if (attribute.Description == description)
                    return (T)field.GetValue(null);
            }
            else
            {
                if (field.Name == description)
                    return (T)field.GetValue(null);
            }
        }

        throw new ArgumentException("Not found.", nameof(description));
        // Or return default(T);
    }
}

Usage:

var panda = EnumEx.GetValueFromDescription<Animal>("Giant Panda");

The solution works good except if you have a Web Service.

You would need to do the Following as the Description Attribute is not serializable.

[DataContract]
public enum ControlSelectionType
{
    [EnumMember(Value = "Not Applicable")]
    NotApplicable = 1,
    [EnumMember(Value = "Single Select Radio Buttons")]
    SingleSelectRadioButtons = 2,
    [EnumMember(Value = "Completely Different Display Text")]
    SingleSelectDropDownList = 3,
}

public static string GetDescriptionFromEnumValue(Enum value)
{
        EnumMemberAttribute attribute = value.GetType()
            .GetField(value.ToString())
            .GetCustomAttributes(typeof(EnumMemberAttribute), false)
            .SingleOrDefault() as EnumMemberAttribute;
        return attribute == null ? value.ToString() : attribute.Value;
}

rather than extension methods, just try a couple of static methods

public static class Utility
{
    public static string GetDescriptionFromEnumValue(Enum value)
    {
        DescriptionAttribute attribute = value.GetType()
            .GetField(value.ToString())
            .GetCustomAttributes(typeof (DescriptionAttribute), false)
            .SingleOrDefault() as DescriptionAttribute;
        return attribute == null ? value.ToString() : attribute.Description;
    }

    public static T GetEnumValueFromDescription<T>(string description)
    {
        var type = typeof(T);
        if (!type.IsEnum)
            throw new ArgumentException();
        FieldInfo[] fields = type.GetFields();
        var field = fields
                        .SelectMany(f => f.GetCustomAttributes(
                            typeof(DescriptionAttribute), false), (
                                f, a) => new { Field = f, Att = a })
                        .Where(a => ((DescriptionAttribute)a.Att)
                            .Description == description).SingleOrDefault();
        return field == null ? default(T) : (T)field.Field.GetRawConstantValue();
    }
}

and use here

var result1 = Utility.GetDescriptionFromEnumValue(
    Animal.GiantPanda);
var result2 = Utility.GetEnumValueFromDescription<Animal>(
    "Lesser Spotted Anteater");