This is a generic implementation using a lambda for the selection

public static Expected GetAttributeValue<T, Expected>(this Enum enumeration, Func<T, Expected> expression)
    where T : Attribute
{
    T attribute =
      enumeration
        .GetType()
        .GetMember(enumeration.ToString())
        .Where(member => member.MemberType == MemberTypes.Field)
        .FirstOrDefault()
        .GetCustomAttributes(typeof(T), false)
        .Cast<T>()
        .SingleOrDefault();

    if (attribute == null)
        return default(Expected);

    return expression(attribute);
}

Call it like this:

string description = targetLevel.GetAttributeValue<DescriptionAttribute, string>(x => x.Description);

For some programmer humor, a one liner as a joke:

public static string GetDescription(this Enum value) => value.GetType().GetMember(value.ToString()).First().GetCustomAttribute<DescriptionAttribute>() is DescriptionAttribute attribute ? attribute.Description : string.Empty;

In a more readable form:

using System;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Linq;
using System.Reflection;

public static class EnumExtensions
{
    // get description from enum:

    public static string GetDescription(this Enum value)
    {
        return value.GetType().
            GetMember(value.ToString()).
            First().
            GetCustomAttribute<DescriptionAttribute>() is DescriptionAttribute attribute
            ? attribute.Description
            : throw new Exception($"Enum member '{value.GetType()}.{value}' doesn't have a [DescriptionAttribute]!");
    }

    // get enum from description:

    public static T GetEnum<T>(this string description) where T : Enum
    {
        foreach (FieldInfo fieldInfo in typeof(T).GetFields())
        {
            if (fieldInfo.GetCustomAttribute<DescriptionAttribute>() is DescriptionAttribute attribute && attribute.Description == description)
                return (T)fieldInfo.GetRawConstantValue();
        }

        throw new Exception($"Enum '{typeof(T)}' doesn't have a member with a [DescriptionAttribute('{description}')]!");
    }
}

Here's the .NET Core version of AdamCrawford's answer, using System.Reflection.TypeExtensions;

public static class EnumHelper
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Gets an attribute on an enum field value
    /// </summary>
    /// <typeparam name="T">The type of the attribute you want to retrieve</typeparam>
    /// <param name="enumVal">The enum value</param>
    /// <returns>The attribute of type T that exists on the enum value</returns>
    /// <example>string desc = myEnumVariable.GetAttributeOfType<DescriptionAttribute>().Description;</example>
    public static T GetAttributeOfType<T>(this Enum enumVal) where T : System.Attribute
    {
        var type = enumVal.GetType();
        var memInfo = type.GetMember(enumVal.ToString());
        IEnumerable<Attribute> attributes = memInfo[0].GetCustomAttributes(typeof(T), false);
        return (T)attributes?.ToArray()[0];
    }
}

Performance matters

If you want better performance this is the way to go:

public static class AdvancedEnumExtensions
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Gets the custom attribute <typeparamref name="T"/> for the enum constant, if such a constant is defined and has such an attribute; otherwise null.
    /// </summary>
    public static T GetCustomAttribute<T>(this Enum value) where T : Attribute
    {
        return GetField(value)?.GetCustomAttribute<T>(inherit: false);
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Gets the FieldInfo for the enum constant, if such a constant is defined; otherwise null.
    /// </summary>
    public static FieldInfo GetField(this Enum value)
    {
        ulong u64 = ToUInt64(value);
        return value
            .GetType()
            .GetFields(BindingFlags.Public | BindingFlags.NonPublic | BindingFlags.Static)
            .Where(f => ToUInt64(f.GetRawConstantValue()) == u64)
            .FirstOrDefault();
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Checks if an enum constant is defined for this enum value
    /// </summary>
    public static bool IsDefined(this Enum value)
    {
        return GetField(value) != null;
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Converts the enum value to UInt64
    /// </summary>
    public static ulong ToUInt64(this Enum value) => ToUInt64((object)value);

    private static ulong ToUInt64(object value)
    {
        switch (Convert.GetTypeCode(value))
        {
            case TypeCode.SByte:
            case TypeCode.Int16:
            case TypeCode.Int32:
            case TypeCode.Int64:
                return unchecked((ulong)Convert.ToInt64(value, CultureInfo.InvariantCulture));

            case TypeCode.Byte:
            case TypeCode.UInt16:
            case TypeCode.UInt32:
            case TypeCode.UInt64:
            case TypeCode.Char:
            case TypeCode.Boolean:
                return Convert.ToUInt64(value, CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);

            default: throw new InvalidOperationException("UnknownEnumType");
        }
    }
}

Why does this have better performance?

Because the built-in methods all use code very similar to this except they also run a bunch of other code we don't care about. C#'s Enum code is quite horrible in general.

The above code has been Linq-ified and streamlined so it only contains the bits we care about.

Why is the built-in code slow?

First regarding Enum.ToString() -vs- Enum.GetName(..)

Always use the latter. (Or better yet neither, as will become clear below.)

ToString() uses the latter internally, but again, also does a bunch of other stuff we don't want, e.g. tries to combine flags, print out numbers etc. We are only interested in constants defined inside the enum.

Enum.GetName in turn gets all fields, creates a string array for all names, uses the above ToUInt64 on all of their RawConstantValues to create an UInt64 array of all values, sorts both arrays according to the UInt64 value, and finally gets the name from the name-array by doing a BinarySearch in the UInt64-array to find the index of the value we wanted.

...and then we throw the fields and the sorted arrays away use that name to find the field again.

One word: "Ugh!"

Bryan Rowe and AdamCrawford thanks for your answers!

But if somebody need method for get Discription (not extension) you can use it:

string GetEnumDiscription(Enum EnumValue)
        {
            var type = EnumValue.GetType();
            var memInfo = type.GetMember(EnumValue.ToString());
            var attributes = memInfo[0].GetCustomAttributes(typeof(DescriptionAttribute), false);
            return (attributes.Length > 0) ? ((DescriptionAttribute)attributes[0]).Description : null;
        }

If your enum contains a value like Equals you might bump into a few bugs using some extensions in a lot of answers here. This is because it is normally assumed that typeof(YourEnum).GetMember(YourEnum.Value) would return only one value, which is the MemberInfo of your enum. Here's a slightly safer version Adam Crawford's answer.

public static class AttributeExtensions
{
    #region Methods

    public static T GetAttribute<T>(this Enum enumValue) where T : Attribute
    {
        var type = enumValue.GetType();
        var memberInfo = type.GetMember(enumValue.ToString());
        var member = memberInfo.FirstOrDefault(m => m.DeclaringType == type);
        var attribute = Attribute.GetCustomAttribute(member, typeof(T), false);
        return attribute is T ? (T)attribute : null;
    }

    #endregion
}

Model

The model in which we fill our values

public class MemberTypeModel : IDto
{
    public string MemberAttributeName { get; set; }
    public string MemberName { get; set; }
    public int MemberValue { get; set; }
}

Enum

Our target is the enum

public enum MemberType
{
    [FieldText("Yönetim Kurul Üyesi")]
    BoardManager = 0,

    [FieldText("Temsilci")]
    Representative = 1,

    [FieldText("Üye")]
    Member = 2
}

Helper Method

The helper method we will use to fetch the custom attribute object

public T GetMemberCustomText<T>(MemberType memberType) where T : Attribute
{
    var enumType = memberType.GetType();
    var name = Enum.GetName(enumType, memberType);
    return enumType.GetField(name).GetCustomAttributes(false).OfType<T>().SingleOrDefault();
}

Get Method

First we pull enum values and cast them to enum type. Then, with the Linq selection query we know;

• MemberAttributeName field with helper method,
• MemberName field with Enum.GetName method,
• Casting the MemberValue field to an int type as well, We fill it out and turn it into a list.

public List<MemberTypeModel> GetMemberTypes()
{
    var memberTypes = Enum.GetValues(typeof(MemberType))
        .Cast<MemberType>()
        .Select(et => new MemberTypeModel
        {
            MemberAttributeName = GetMemberCustomText<FieldText>(et).Text,
            MemberName = Enum.GetName(et.GetType(), et),
            MemberValue = (int)et
        }).ToList();
    return memberTypes;
}

    public enum DataFilters
    {
        [Display(Name= "Equals")]
        Equals = 1,// Display Name and Enum Name are same 
        [Display(Name= "Does Not Equal")]
        DoesNotEqual = 2, // Display Name and Enum Name are different             
    }

Now it will produce error in this case 1 "Equals"

public static string GetDisplayName(this Enum enumValue)
    {
        var enumMember = enumValue.GetType().GetMember(enumValue.ToString()).First();
        return enumMember.GetCustomAttribute<DisplayAttribute>() != null ? enumMember.GetCustomAttribute<DisplayAttribute>().Name : enumMember.Name;
    }

so if it is same return enum name rather than display name because enumMember.GetCustomAttribute() gets null if displayname and enum name are same.....

Alternatively, you could do the following:

List<SelectListItem> selectListItems = new List<SelectListItem>();

    foreach (var item in typeof(PaymentTerm).GetEnumValues())
    {
        var type = item.GetType();
        var name = type.GetField(item.ToString()).GetCustomAttributesData().FirstOrDefault()?.NamedArguments.FirstOrDefault().TypedValue.Value.ToString();
        selectListItems.Add(new SelectListItem(name, type.Name));

    }

I have created an extension method that will return description of all the elements in an enum in C#.

public static List<string> GetAllEnumDescriptions(this Type enumType)
    {
        try
        {
            var enumList = Enum.GetValues(enumType).Cast<Enum>().ToList();
            List<string> result = new List<string>();
            foreach (var enumItem in enumList)
            {
                result.Add(enumItem.EnumDescription());
            }
            return result;
        }
        catch (Exception ex)
        {
            return new List<string>();
        }
    }

This method will add the description of the elements in an enum using the inbuilt EnumDescription() extension method.

This is how I solved it without using custom helpers or extensions with .NET core 3.1.

Class

public enum YourEnum
{
    [Display(Name = "Suryoye means Arameans")]
    SURYOYE = 0,
    [Display(Name = "Oromoye means Syriacs")]
    OROMOYE = 1,
}

Razor

@using Enumerations

foreach (var name in Html.GetEnumSelectList(typeof(YourEnum)))
{
    <h1>@name.Text</h1>
}