1cfe53e827
A Better Enum is normally implicitly convertible to its internal enum type,
which makes it then implicitly convertible to an integer as well. The former
conversion is necessary for Better Enums to be usable in switch statements.
This change makes it possible to define BETTER_ENUMS_SAFER_SWITCH, which makes
Better Enums convert to an enum class, preventing the implicit conversion to
integers. The drawback is that switch cases have to be written as
case Enum::_Case::A:
instead of
case Enum::A:
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| doc | ||
| example | ||
| test | ||
| .gitattributes | ||
| .gitignore | ||
| enum.h | ||
| LICENSE | ||
| pp_map_gen.py | ||
| README.md | ||
Better Enums
Reflective compile-time C++11 enum library with clean syntax. For example:
ENUM(Channel, int, Red = 1, Green, Blue);
defines a type Channel. You can then do natural things like:
Channel channel = Channel::Green;
channel.to_string(); // Results in the string "Green"
channel.to_integral(); // Results in the int 2
Channel::_from_string("Red"); // Results in Channel::Red
Channel::_from_integral(3); // Results in Channel::Blue
constexpr auto channel = Channel::_from_integral(3);
// Do it at compile time
constexpr auto channel = Channel::_max;
// Channel::Blue
for (Channel channel : Channel::_values) {
// Iterate over all channels
}
...and more. See the project page and examples for a tutorial.
Installation
Simply add enum.h from master to your project.
Features
- Generated at compile time by
constexprfunctions and the preprocessor. - Safe conversions between enums and integers and strings. 1-basic.cc
- Iterable collections of constants and names. 2-iterate.cc
- Range information, such as the number of constants defined and the maximum constant. 2-iterate.cc
- Switch case checking. 3-switch.cc
- All operations are
constexprand can be used at compile time in your ownconstexprcode. 4-constexpr.cc - Constant values can be set (
Red = 1) and aliased (Favorite = Green), just like with built-in enums. - Generating a large number of enums is about as fast as including a typical
standard header like
iostream– performance test included. - Explicit choice of underlying representation type.
- Header-only.
- No dependencies besides the standard library.
- Tested on gcc 4.9 and clang 3.6.
The library is standard C++, but it compiles only with gcc and clang due to lagging C++11 support in msvc. A future runtime fallback version will allow msvc and non-C++11 usage.
Contact
Don't hesitate to contact me about features (or bugs!): antonbachin@yahoo.com
Explanation
The ENUM macro specializes a template based around a regular enum
declaration, though it is more similar to enum class in the degree of type
safety. The following are spiritually equivalent:
ENUM(Channel, int, Red = 1, Green, Blue);
enum class Channel : int {Red = 1, Green, Blue};
ENUM(Depth, char, Indexed8Bit, HighColor, TrueColor);
enum class Depth : char {Indexed8Bit, HighColor, TrueColor};
See the full documentation.
Development plan
There are several areas that still need improvement.
- Some enum types might have a sensible choice for a default constructor. The library should allow it to be customized.
- All safety checks are currently done by linear scans. This may be a performance problem for enum types with many constants.
- Better diagnostics for empty enums or too many constants.
- Conversions from integers and strings that don't throw exceptions, but indicate failure by some other means.
License
Better Enums is released under the BSD 2-clause license. See LICENSE.
History
The library was originally developed by the author in the winter of 2012-2013 at
Hudson River Trading, as a replacement for an older generator called
BETTER_ENUM.