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

You do not need to do it. In C (not C++) you were required to use enum Enumname to refer to a data element of the enumerated type. To simplify it you were allowed to typedef it to a single name data type.

typedef enum MyEnum { 
  //...
} MyEnum;

allowed functions taking a parameter of the enum to be defined as

void f( MyEnum x )

instead of the longer

void f( enum MyEnum x )

Note that the name of the typename does not need to be equal to the name of the enum. The same happens with structs.

In C++, on the other hand, it is not required, as enums, classes and structs can be accessed directly as types by their names.

// C++
enum MyEnum {
   // ...
};
void f( MyEnum x ); // Correct C++, Error in C