better-enums/GeneralUnderlyingTypes.html
2020-10-19 09:11:42 +03:00

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<h1><a href="index.html">Better Enums</a></h1>
<h2>Reflective compile-time enums for <span class="cpp">C++</span></h2>
<h3>Open-source under the BSD license</h3>
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<h2>General underlying types</h2>
<p>The underlying type of a Better Enum doesn't have to be an integral type. It can
be any literal type <code>T</code>, as long as you provide a <code>constexpr</code> two-way mapping
between <code>T</code> and an integral type of your choosing. It also works in <span class="cpp">C++</span><span class="eleven">98</span>,
though, of course, <code>T</code> doesn't have to be literal and the mapping doesn't have
to be <code>constexpr</code> &mdash; everything will be done by Better Enums at run time.</p>
<p>Doing this enables the following usage:</p>
<pre>// The type. A color triplet.
<em>struct html_color {
uint8_t r, g, b;
constexpr html_color(uint8_t _r, uint8_t g, uint8_t b) :
r(_r), g(_g), b(_b) { }
};</em>
// The enum.
<em>ENUM(Color, html_color,
darksalmon = 0xc47451, purplemimosa = 0x9e7bff, slimegreen = 0xbce954)</em>
// The usage.
<em>Color c = Color::darksalmon;
std::cout &lt;&lt; "Red component: " &lt;&lt; c-&gt;r &lt;&lt; std::endl;
switch (c) {
case Color::darksalmon: // ...
case Color::purplemimosa: // ...
case Color::slimegreen: // ...
}</em></pre><p>As you can see, you can have an enumerated set of any literal type, and safely
use the values in <code>switch</code>, with the compiler checking exhaustiveness. You can
also access the type's members using the <code>enum-&gt;underlying_member</code> syntax.</p>
<p>You do have to supply the mapping to an integral type, however. One option is:</p>
<pre>// The mapping. It just stuffs bits.
<em>template &lt;&gt;
struct ::better_enums::underlying_traits&lt;html_color&gt; {
using integral_representation = unsigned int;
constexpr static html_color from_integral(unsigned int i)
{ return html_color(i &gt;&gt; 16 &amp; 0xff, i &gt;&gt; 8 &amp; 0xff, i &amp; 0xff); }
constexpr static unsigned int to_integral(html_color c)
{ return (unsigned int)c.r &lt;&lt; 16 | (unsigned int)c.g &lt;&lt; 8 | c.b; }
};</em></pre><a id="UsingConstructorsInInitializers"></a><h3>Using constructors in initializers</h3>
<p>The declaration above used only numeric initializers. It is possible to use the
type's own constructors, provided the type has a <code>constexpr</code> conversion to your
chosen integral type:</p>
<pre>// The type.
<em>struct html_color {
uint8_t r, g, b;
constexpr html_color(uint8_t _r, uint8_t g, uint8_t b) :
r(_r), g(_g), b(_b) { }
</em>// This is new:<em>
constexpr operator unsigned int() const
{ return (unsigned int)r &lt;&lt; 16 | (unsigned int)g &lt;&lt; 8 | b; }
};</em>
// The enum.
<em>ENUM(Color, html_color,
darksalmon = 0xc47451, purplemimosa = 0x9e7bff, slimegreen = 0xbce954,
celeste = html_color(0x50, 0xeb, 0xec))</em></pre><p>This is not possible at all in <span class="cpp">C++</span><span class="eleven">98</span>, however.</p>
<a id="LettingTheCompilerEnumerateYourLiteralType"></a><h3>Letting the compiler enumerate your literal type</h3>
<p>You don't have to use initializers. For example, as long as your example type
<code>file_descriptor</code> knows how to deal with the values, you can have the compiler
generate them in sequence:</p>
<pre><em>ENUM(FD, file_descriptor, STDIN, STDOUT, STDERR, SomePipeYourDaemonHas, ...)</em></pre><p>SAMPLE</p>
<p>You can see the code "in action" in the <a href="https://github.com/aantron/better-enums/blob/master/test/cxxtest/underlying.h">test case</a>. Be aware that it's
not very "nice," because it uses conditional compilation to run under multiple
compilers. I haven't written a clean sample or documentation yet simply because
this feature is in a very early stage of development.</p>
<a id="Discussion"></a><h3>Discussion</h3>
<p>This feature is still semi-experimental, though I expect it to remain stable,
except perhaps that I will make it possible to infer the type
<code>integral_representation</code>.</p>
<p>Any opinions are welcome.</p>
<ul>
<li>The main reason Better Enums needs you to supply and explicit mapping is
because it can't just get the "bits" of objects of underlying type in
<code>constexpr</code> code. Both <code>reinterpret_cast</code> and union abuse seem to be forbidden
in <code>constexpr</code> functions.</li>
<li>There is currently no way to have two different integral representaitons for
the same underlying type in different enums. I don't think that's a major use
case at this point, however.</li>
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Copyright &copy; 2015 Anton Bachin. Released under the BSD 2-clause license.
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