How do i ToString() an enum in c++? [duplicate]

Answer 1

You can store the names in an array of strings, indexed by the enum values.

enum Colours
{
    Red =0,
    Green=1,
    Blue=2
};

char* names[3] = {"Red", "Green", "Blue"};

Then you can print: "Invalid colour '" + names[colour] + "' selected."

But this approach may not be very useful if you do not define the enum values sequentially. In that case this approach will waste memory. Writing a function with a switch over the enum value would be useful, as Alexander Gessler has mentioned. Another alternative may be the map from STL.