Enumerations: Named Integer Constants

Snippet

Enumerations: Named Integer Constants

An enumeration defines a set of named integer constants. Traditional enums (like Color) are in the global scope, while enum class (like Priority) provides stronger type safety and requires the scope operator :: to access values. Enums make code more readable by replacing magic numbers with meaningful names.

snippet.cpp
cpp
#include <iostream>
 
enum Color {
    RED = 1,
    GREEN = 2,
    BLUE = 3
};
 
enum class Priority {
    LOW = 1,
    MEDIUM = 2,
    HIGH = 3
};
 
int main() {
    Color favorite = GREEN;
 
    if (favorite == RED) {
        std::cout << "Red is favorite" << std::endl;
    } else if (favorite == GREEN) {
        std::cout << "Green is favorite" << std::endl;
    }
 
    Priority p = Priority::HIGH;
    std::cout << "Priority value: " << static_cast<int>(p) << std::endl;
 
    return 0;
}

Breakdown

enum Color { RED = 1, GREEN = 2, BLUE = 3 };

Traditional enum with assigned integer values

enum class Priority { LOW, MEDIUM, HIGH };

Strongly-typed enum class requiring scope operator

static_cast<int>(p)

Converts enum class value to integer for output

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Enumerations: Named Integer Constants

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