How to easily map c++ enums to strings
- by Roddy
I have a bunch of enum types in some library header files that I'm using, and I want to have a way of converting enum values to user strings - and vice-versa.
RTTI won't do it for me, because the 'user strings' need to be a bit more readable than the enumerations.
A brute force solution would be a bunch of functions like this, but I feel that's a bit too C-like.
enum MyEnum {VAL1, VAL2,VAL3};
String getStringFromEnum(MyEnum e)
{
switch e
{
case VAL1: return "Value 1";
case VAL2: return "Value 2";
case VAL1: return "Value 3";
default: throw Exception("Bad MyEnum");
}
}
I have a gut feeling that there's an elegant solution using templates, but I can't quite get my head round it yet.
UPDATE: Thanks for suggestions - I should have made clear that the enums are defined in a third-party library header, so I don't want to have to change the definition of them.
My gut feeling now is to avoid templates and do something like this:
char * MyGetValue(int v, char *tmp); // implementation is trivial
#define ENUM_MAP(type, strings) char * getStringValue(const type &T) \
{ \
return MyGetValue((int)T, strings); \
}
; enum eee {AA,BB,CC}; - exists in library header file
; enum fff {DD,GG,HH};
ENUM_MAP(eee,"AA|BB|CC")
ENUM_MAP(fff,"DD|GG|HH")
// To use...
eee e;
fff f;
std::cout<< getStringValue(e);
std::cout<< getStringValue(f);
