Why do you use typedef when declaring an enum in C++?

Question

I haven\'t written any C++ in years and now I\'m trying to get back into it. I then ran across this and thought about giving up:

typedef enum TokenType
{
            


        

Answer 1

It's a C heritage, in C, if you do :

enum TokenType
{
    blah1   = 0x00000000,
    blah2   = 0X01000000,
    blah3   = 0X02000000
};

you'll have to use it doing something like :

enum TokenType foo;

But if you do this :

typedef enum e_TokenType
{
    blah1   = 0x00000000,
    blah2   = 0X01000000,
    blah3   = 0X02000000
} TokenType;

You'll be able to declare :

TokenType foo;

But in C++, you can use only the former definition and use it as if it were in a C typedef.