Enums

In C++, an enumeration (enum) is a user defined type where we specify a set of values for a variable and the variable can only take one out of a small set of possible values.

Syntax

The keyword enum is used to define an enumeration.

enum name {const1, const2, ...};

Here’s an example:

enum day {sun, mon, tue, wed, thu, fri, sat};

• sun would have the value 0
• mon would have the value 1
• tue would have the value 2
• wed would have the value 3
• thu would have the value 4
• fri would have the value 5
• sat would have the value 6

Here’a another example where one of the constants is assigned a value:

enum grade {freshman=9, sophomore, junior, senior};

The enumerator freshman is assigned the value 9. Subsequent enumerators, if they are not given an explicit value, receive the value of the previous enumerator plus one.

So here:

• freshman would have the value 9
• sophomore would have the value 10
• junior would have the value 11
• senior would have the value 12

Codebyte Example