Enum to string in C++11

Question

I realize this has been asked before more than once on SO but I couldn\'t find a question explicitly looking for a current solution to this issue with C++11, so here we go again

Answer 1

In my opinion, the most maintainable approach is to write a helper function:

const char* get_name(OS_type os) {
  switch (os) {
  case Linux: return "Linux";
  case Apple: return "Apple";
  case Windows: return "Windows";
  }
}

It is a good idea not to implement the "default" case, since doing so will ensure that you get a compiler warning if you forget to implement a case (with the right compiler and compiler settings).