Retro video games delivered to your door every month!
Click above to get retro games delivered to your door ever month!
X-Hacker.org- Microsoft C 6.0 - <b>enum enumeration data type</b> http://www.X-Hacker.org [<<Previous Entry] [^^Up^^] [Next Entry>>] [Menu] [About The Guide]
 enum                    Enumeration Data Type

    An enumeration defines a set of named integer constants. At any given
    time, a variable of an enumeration type can contain any one of its
    set of integer constants.  An enum is stored as a signed int.  An
    enum type is optionally named using a tag.  An enum declaration has
    the form:

           enum [tag] {enum-list} [declarator [, declarator ...]] ;

    enum-list has the form

           identifier [= cex][, identifier [= cex]] ...

    where cex represents a constant integer expression.  Once an enum set
    has been defined, it may be referenced in subsequent declarations
    using the format

           enum tag declarator [[, declarator ...]] ;

      Notes:    If an enum set has no tag it cannot be referenced in
                subsequent (and separate) declarations, casts or function
                definitions.

                Enums with different tag names define different data
                types, even if their layouts are identical. That is, such
                enums are not assignment-compatible and should not be
                copied to or compared with each other. If you really mean
                two enum types to be the same, make them the same. This
                also applies to enums without tags.

                Unless otherwise specified, the first member in a set is
                assigned the value 0, the next 1, the next 2, etc. You
                may assign member values specifically as shown in the
                example of enum hair_color (see the redhead in the last
                example below). Any member without an explicitly assigned
                value will have a value one greater than the previous
                member's value. As shown in the examples, members may
                have duplicate values. There may also be gaps in the
                range of values assigned.

                Each enum has its own identifier namespace, and an enum
                tag must be distinct from other enum, struct and union
                tags.

                Since an enum is really a fancy int, the language permits
                you to deal with enums as ints in all cases, allowing
                such things as car_color = 26; if (car_color == -
                4)...etc.  Such practices are discouraged, and if maximum
                warning mode is enabled at compile-time (via the /W
                switch), you will be warned about the logical mismatch.

                A static or external enum will be initialized to zero, by
                default, since it is an int. However, since zero may not
                be the value of any of the members in the set, you should
                specifically initialize enums before using them.

   -------------------------------- Example ---------------------------------

           enum color {red, green, blue, black} car_color;
           enum color flower_color, *ptr_color, colors[10];

           car_color = green;
           if (car_color == red) ...

           enum hair_color {blonde = -2, redhead = -1, brown = -2,
                brunette};


See Also: struct union

Online resources provided by: http://www.X-Hacker.org --- NG 2 HTML conversion by Dave Pearson