How can I output the value of an enum class in C++11

Question

How can I output the value of an enum class in C++11? In C++03 it\'s like this:

#include 

using namespace std;

enum A {
  a =          


        

Answer 1

(I'm not allowed to comment yet.) I would suggest the following improvements to the already great answer of James McNellis:

template 
constexpr auto as_integer(Enumeration const value)
    -> typename std::underlying_type::type
{
    static_assert(std::is_enum::value, "parameter is not of type enum or enum class");
    return static_cast::type>(value);
}

with

• constexpr: allowing me to use an enum member value as compile-time array size
• static_assert+is_enum: to 'ensure' compile-time that the function does sth. with enumerations only, as suggested

By the way I'm asking myself: Why should I ever use enum class when I would like to assign number values to my enum members?! Considering the conversion effort.

Perhaps I would then go back to ordinary enum as I suggested here: How to use enums as flags in C++?

---

Yet another (better) flavor of it without static_assert, based on a suggestion of @TobySpeight:

template 
constexpr std::enable_if_t::value,
std::underlying_type_t> as_number(const Enumeration value)
{
    return static_cast>(value);
}