Is there a simple way to convert C++ enum to string?

Question

Suppose we have some named enums:

enum MyEnum {
      FOO,
      BAR = 0x50
};

What I googled for is a script (any language) that scans all

Answer 1

#include <stdarg.h>
#include <algorithm>
#include <string> 
#include <vector>
#include <sstream>
#include <map>

#define SMART_ENUM(EnumName, ...)                                   \
class EnumName                                                      \
{                                                                   \
private:                                                            \
    static std::map<int, std::string> nameMap;                      \
public:                                                             \
    enum {__VA_ARGS__};                                             \
private:                                                            \
    static std::map<int, std::string> initMap()                     \
    {                                                               \
        using namespace std;                                        \
                                                                    \
        int val = 0;                                                \
        string buf_1, buf_2, str = #__VA_ARGS__;                    \
        replace(str.begin(), str.end(), '=', ' ');                  \
        stringstream stream(str);                                   \
        vector<string> strings;                                     \
        while (getline(stream, buf_1, ','))                         \
            strings.push_back(buf_1);                               \
        map<int, string> tmp;                                       \
        for(vector<string>::iterator it = strings.begin();          \
                                               it != strings.end(); \
                                               ++it)                \
        {                                                           \
            buf_1.clear(); buf_2.clear();                           \
            stringstream localStream(*it);                          \
            localStream>> buf_1 >> buf_2;                           \
            if(buf_2.size() > 0)                                    \
                val = atoi(buf_2.c_str());                          \
            tmp[val++] = buf_1;                                     \
        }                                                           \
        return tmp;                                                 \
    }                                                               \
public:                                                             \
    static std::string toString(int aInt)                           \
    {                                                               \
        return nameMap[aInt];                                       \
    }                                                               \
};                                                                  \
std::map<int, std::string>                                          \
EnumName::nameMap = EnumName::initMap();

Usage:

SMART_ENUM(MyEnum, ONE=1, TWO, THREE, TEN=10, ELEVEN)
cout<<MyEnum::toString(MyEnum::TWO);
cout<<MyEnum::toString(10);

Answer 2

I want to post this in case someone finds it useful.

In my case, I simply need to generate ToString() and FromString() functions for a single C++11 enum from a single .hpp file.

I wrote a python script that parses the header file containing the enum items and generates the functions in a new .cpp file.

You can add this script in CMakeLists.txt with execute_process, or as a pre-build event in Visual Studio. The .cpp file will be automatically generated, without the need to manually update it each time a new enum item is added.

generate_enum_strings.py

# This script is used to generate strings from C++ enums

import re
import sys
import os

fileName = sys.argv[1]
enumName = os.path.basename(os.path.splitext(fileName)[0])

with open(fileName, 'r') as f:
    content = f.read().replace('\n', '')

searchResult = re.search('enum(.*)\{(.*?)\};', content)
tokens = searchResult.group(2)
tokens = tokens.split(',')
tokens = map(str.strip, tokens)
tokens = map(lambda token: re.search('([a-zA-Z0-9_]*)', token).group(1), tokens)

textOut = ''
textOut += '\n#include "' + enumName + '.hpp"\n\n'
textOut += 'namespace myns\n'
textOut += '{\n'
textOut += '    std::string ToString(ErrorCode errorCode)\n'
textOut += '    {\n'
textOut += '        switch (errorCode)\n'
textOut += '        {\n'

for token in tokens:
    textOut += '        case ' + enumName + '::' + token + ':\n'
    textOut += '            return "' + token + '";\n'

textOut += '        default:\n'
textOut += '            return "Last";\n'
textOut += '        }\n'
textOut += '    }\n'
textOut += '\n'
textOut += '    ' + enumName + ' FromString(const std::string &errorCode)\n'
textOut += '    {\n'
textOut += '        if ("' + tokens[0] + '" == errorCode)\n'
textOut += '        {\n'
textOut += '            return ' + enumName + '::' + tokens[0] + ';\n'
textOut += '        }\n'

for token in tokens[1:]:
    textOut += '        else if("' + token + '" == errorCode)\n'
    textOut += '        {\n'
    textOut += '            return ' + enumName + '::' + token + ';\n'
    textOut += '        }\n'

textOut += '\n'
textOut += '        return ' + enumName + '::Last;\n'
textOut += '    }\n'
textOut += '}\n'

fileOut = open(enumName + '.cpp', 'w')
fileOut.write(textOut)

Example:

ErrorCode.hpp

#pragma once

#include <string>
#include <cstdint>

namespace myns
{
    enum class ErrorCode : uint32_t
    {
        OK = 0,
        OutOfSpace,
        ConnectionFailure,
        InvalidJson,
        DatabaseFailure,
        HttpError,
        FileSystemError,
        FailedToEncrypt,
        FailedToDecrypt,
        EndOfFile,
        FailedToOpenFileForRead,
        FailedToOpenFileForWrite,
        FailedToLaunchProcess,

        Last
    };

    std::string ToString(ErrorCode errorCode);
    ErrorCode FromString(const std::string &errorCode);
}

Run python generate_enum_strings.py ErrorCode.hpp

Result:

ErrorCode.cpp

#include "ErrorCode.hpp"

namespace myns
{
    std::string ToString(ErrorCode errorCode)
    {
        switch (errorCode)
        {
        case ErrorCode::OK:
            return "OK";
        case ErrorCode::OutOfSpace:
            return "OutOfSpace";
        case ErrorCode::ConnectionFailure:
            return "ConnectionFailure";
        case ErrorCode::InvalidJson:
            return "InvalidJson";
        case ErrorCode::DatabaseFailure:
            return "DatabaseFailure";
        case ErrorCode::HttpError:
            return "HttpError";
        case ErrorCode::FileSystemError:
            return "FileSystemError";
        case ErrorCode::FailedToEncrypt:
            return "FailedToEncrypt";
        case ErrorCode::FailedToDecrypt:
            return "FailedToDecrypt";
        case ErrorCode::EndOfFile:
            return "EndOfFile";
        case ErrorCode::FailedToOpenFileForRead:
            return "FailedToOpenFileForRead";
        case ErrorCode::FailedToOpenFileForWrite:
            return "FailedToOpenFileForWrite";
        case ErrorCode::FailedToLaunchProcess:
            return "FailedToLaunchProcess";
        case ErrorCode::Last:
            return "Last";
        default:
            return "Last";
        }
    }

    ErrorCode FromString(const std::string &errorCode)
    {
        if ("OK" == errorCode)
        {
            return ErrorCode::OK;
        }
        else if("OutOfSpace" == errorCode)
        {
            return ErrorCode::OutOfSpace;
        }
        else if("ConnectionFailure" == errorCode)
        {
            return ErrorCode::ConnectionFailure;
        }
        else if("InvalidJson" == errorCode)
        {
            return ErrorCode::InvalidJson;
        }
        else if("DatabaseFailure" == errorCode)
        {
            return ErrorCode::DatabaseFailure;
        }
        else if("HttpError" == errorCode)
        {
            return ErrorCode::HttpError;
        }
        else if("FileSystemError" == errorCode)
        {
            return ErrorCode::FileSystemError;
        }
        else if("FailedToEncrypt" == errorCode)
        {
            return ErrorCode::FailedToEncrypt;
        }
        else if("FailedToDecrypt" == errorCode)
        {
            return ErrorCode::FailedToDecrypt;
        }
        else if("EndOfFile" == errorCode)
        {
            return ErrorCode::EndOfFile;
        }
        else if("FailedToOpenFileForRead" == errorCode)
        {
            return ErrorCode::FailedToOpenFileForRead;
        }
        else if("FailedToOpenFileForWrite" == errorCode)
        {
            return ErrorCode::FailedToOpenFileForWrite;
        }
        else if("FailedToLaunchProcess" == errorCode)
        {
            return ErrorCode::FailedToLaunchProcess;
        }
        else if("Last" == errorCode)
        {
            return ErrorCode::Last;
        }

        return ErrorCode::Last;
    }
}

Answer 3

X-macros are the best solution. Example:

#include <iostream>

enum Colours {
#   define X(a) a,
#   include "colours.def"
#   undef X
    ColoursCount
};

char const* const colours_str[] = {
#   define X(a) #a,
#   include "colours.def"
#   undef X
    0
};

std::ostream& operator<<(std::ostream& os, enum Colours c)
{
    if (c >= ColoursCount || c < 0) return os << "???";
    return os << colours_str[c];
}

int main()
{
    std::cout << Red << Blue << Green << Cyan << Yellow << Magenta << std::endl;
}

colours.def:

X(Red)
X(Green)
X(Blue)
X(Cyan)
X(Yellow)
X(Magenta)

However, I usually prefer the following method, so that it's possible to tweak the string a bit.

#define X(a, b) a,
#define X(a, b) b,

X(Red, "red")
X(Green, "green")
// etc.

Answer 4

You may want to check out GCCXML.

Running GCCXML on your sample code produces:

<GCC_XML>
  <Namespace id="_1" name="::" members="_3 " mangled="_Z2::"/>
  <Namespace id="_2" name="std" context="_1" members="" mangled="_Z3std"/>
  <Enumeration id="_3" name="MyEnum" context="_1" location="f0:1" file="f0" line="1">
    <EnumValue name="FOO" init="0"/>
    <EnumValue name="BAR" init="80"/>
  </Enumeration>
  <File id="f0" name="my_enum.h"/>
</GCC_XML>

You could use any language you prefer to pull out the Enumeration and EnumValue tags and generate your desired code.

Answer 5

Another answer: in some contexts, it makes sense to define your enumeration in a non-code format, like a CSV, YAML, or XML file, and then generate both the C++ enumeration code and the to-string code from the definition. This approach may or may not be practical in your application, but it's something to keep in mind.

Answer 6

You could use a reflection library, like Ponder. You register the enums and then you can convert them back and forth with the API.

enum class MyEnum
{
    Zero = 0,
    One  = 1,
    Two  = 2
};

ponder::Enum::declare<MyEnum>()
    .value("Zero", MyEnum::Zero)
    .value("One",  MyEnum::One)
    .value("Two",  MyEnum::Two);

ponder::EnumObject zero(MyEnum::Zero);

zero.name(); // -> "Zero"