How to print out strings from the enum class in C++?

Question

I have a C++ Testing.hh header file in which I have declared this ENUM -

enum TestTypeOpt {TestingOne, TestingTwo};

Now in my Testing.cc class I am trying to print out TestingOne and TestingTwo string from the enum as shown below

 cout << "From command" << Testing::TestingOne << endl;
 cout << "From command" << Testing::TestingTwo << endl;

But above cout prints out 0 and 1 somehow? I recently started working with C++ so little bit confuse.

Is there anything wrong I am doing? I am just trying to print actual string value from the enum class.

@arshan Read the post, he says what he's trying to do. – Qix - MONICA WAS MISTREATED May 31 '14 at 19:09 — Qix - MONICA WAS MISTREATED, May 31 '14 at 19:09

score 0 · Answer 1 · edited May 31 '14 at 19:28

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Someone please correct me if there is a better approach, but the way I know to do this is with macros.

Just type #define str(x) #x This replaces x with the name as it was written in the code.

Then use for example: cout << "From command" << str(Testing::TestingOne) << endl;

edited May 31 '14 at 19:28

πάντα ῥεῖ

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answered May 31 '14 at 19:07

andreee

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Sure you can do this, but this is pointless if you're using a variable. See my edit to my answer. – Qix - MONICA WAS MISTREATED May 31 '14 at 19:10
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@Qix He didn't ask for variables. He showed an explicit example and asked how to print out the names. I feel it's exactly the answer to his question. – andreee May 31 '14 at 19:14
If that's the case then just use a string. Why use a macro at all? – Qix - MONICA WAS MISTREATED May 31 '14 at 19:14
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@Qix he is trying to print out the name of the `enum` for some reason. That's it. If you change it to a string it's not coupled to the enum/variable anymore. Using this can be very helpful for stdout debugging purposes, as you may immediately print out variable names. You are _assuming_ that he wants to print out the actual value of a enum variable as string, but that was not his question. So I don't get the -1... – andreee May 31 '14 at 19:19
No, I understand exactly what he's trying to do. I'm saying using a stringize macro is pointless if all it does is stringize. He'd just use a string in this case. – Qix - MONICA WAS MISTREATED May 31 '14 at 19:21
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@Qix http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3342726/c-print-out-enum-value-as-text – πάντα ῥεῖ May 31 '14 at 19:29
@πάνταῥεῖ That's great; that's not what the OP was asking. They were asking if what they were trying to do what possible. – Qix - MONICA WAS MISTREATED May 31 '14 at 19:29
@Qix Doesn't matter if asked for or not! But constitutes the better solution for the problem. – πάντα ῥεῖ May 31 '14 at 19:32
@andreee According to the marked duplicate that's the right direction to solve the problem, yes! – πάντα ῥεῖ May 31 '14 at 20:14

How to print out strings from the enum class in C++?

1 Answers1