How to use enums in C++

Question

Suppose we have an enum like the following:

enum Days {Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday};

I want to crea

Answer 1

I think your root issue is the use of . instead of ::, which will use the namespace.

Try:

enum Days {Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday};
Days day = Days::Saturday;
if(Days::Saturday == day)  // I like literals before variables :)
{
    std::cout<<"Ok its Saturday";
}

Answer 2

Sadly, elements of the enum are 'global'. You access them by doing day = Saturday. That means that you cannot have enum A { a, b } ; and enum B { b, a } ; for they are in conflict.

Answer 3

Much of this should give you compilation errors.

// note the lower case enum keyword
enum Days { Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday };

Now, Saturday, Sunday, etc. can be used as top-level bare constants,and Days can be used as a type:

Days day = Saturday;   // Days.Saturday is an error

And similarly later, to test:

if (day == Saturday)
    // ...

These enum values are like bare constants - they're un-scoped - with a little extra help from the compiler: (unless you're using C++11 enum classes) they aren't encapsulated like object or structure members for instance, and you can't refer to them as members of Days.

You'll have what you're looking for with C++11, which introduces an enum class:

enum class Days
{
    SUNDAY,
    MONDAY,
    // ... etc.
}

// ...

if (day == Days::SUNDAY)
    // ...

Note that this C++ is a little different from C in a couple of ways, one is that C requires the use of the enum keyword when declaring a variable:

// day declaration in C:
enum Days day = Saturday;

Answer 4

If we want the strict type safety and scoped enum, using enum class is good in C++11.

If we had to work in C++98, we can using the advice given by InitializeSahib,San to enable the scoped enum.

If we also want the strict type safety, the follow code can implement somthing like enum.

#include <iostream>
class Color
{
public:
    static Color RED()
    {
        return Color(0);
    }
    static Color BLUE()
    {
        return Color(1);
    }
    bool operator==(const Color &rhs) const
    {
        return this->value == rhs.value;
    }
    bool operator!=(const Color &rhs) const
    {
        return !(*this == rhs);
    }

private:
    explicit Color(int value_) : value(value_) {}
    int value;
};

int main()
{
    Color color = Color::RED();
    if (color == Color::RED())
    {
        std::cout << "red" << std::endl;
    }
    return 0;
}

The code is modified from the class Month example in book Effective C++ 3rd: Item 18

Answer 5

If you are still using C++03 and want to use enums, you should be using enums inside a namespace. Eg:

namespace Daysofweek{
enum Days {Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday,Wednesday, Thursday, Friday};
}

You can use the enum outside the namespace like,

Daysofweek::Days day = Daysofweek::Saturday;

if (day == Daysofweek::Saturday)
{
    std::cout<<"Ok its Saturday";
}

Answer 6

Rather than using a bunch of if-statements, enums lend themselves well to switch statements

I use some enum/switch combinations in the level builder I am building for my game.

EDIT: Another thing, I see you want syntax similar to;

if(day == Days.Saturday)
etc

You can do this in C++:

if(day == Days::Saturday)
etc

Here is a very simple example:

EnumAppState.h

#ifndef ENUMAPPSTATE_H
#define ENUMAPPSTATE_H
enum eAppState
{
    STARTUP,
    EDIT,
    ZONECREATION,
    SHUTDOWN,
    NOCHANGE
};
#endif

Somefile.cpp

#include "EnumAppState.h"
eAppState state = eAppState::STARTUP;
switch(state)
{
case STARTUP:
    //Do stuff
    break;
case EDIT:
    //Do stuff
    break;
case ZONECREATION:
    //Do stuff
    break;
case SHUTDOWN:
    //Do stuff
    break;
case NOCHANGE:
    //Do stuff
    break;
}