Print text instead of value from C enum

Question

int main()
{

  enum Days{Sunday,Monday,Tuesday,Wednesday,Thursday,Friday,Saturday};

  Days TheDay;

  int j = 0;

  printf(\"Please enter the day of the week (0 to         


        

Answer 1

I use something like this:

in a file "EnumToString.h":

#undef DECL_ENUM_ELEMENT
#undef DECL_ENUM_ELEMENT_VAL
#undef DECL_ENUM_ELEMENT_STR
#undef DECL_ENUM_ELEMENT_VAL_STR
#undef BEGIN_ENUM
#undef END_ENUM

#ifndef GENERATE_ENUM_STRINGS
    #define DECL_ENUM_ELEMENT( element ) element,
    #define DECL_ENUM_ELEMENT_VAL( element, value ) element = value,
    #define DECL_ENUM_ELEMENT_STR( element, descr ) DECL_ENUM_ELEMENT( element )
    #define DECL_ENUM_ELEMENT_VAL_STR( element, value, descr ) DECL_ENUM_ELEMENT_VAL( element, value )
    #define BEGIN_ENUM( ENUM_NAME ) typedef enum tag##ENUM_NAME
    #define END_ENUM( ENUM_NAME ) ENUM_NAME; \
            const char* GetString##ENUM_NAME(enum tag##ENUM_NAME index);
#else
    #define BEGIN_ENUM( ENUM_NAME) const char * GetString##ENUM_NAME( enum tag##ENUM_NAME index ) {\
        switch( index ) { 
    #define DECL_ENUM_ELEMENT( element ) case element: return #element; break;
    #define DECL_ENUM_ELEMENT_VAL( element, value ) DECL_ENUM_ELEMENT( element )
    #define DECL_ENUM_ELEMENT_STR( element, descr ) case element: return descr; break;
    #define DECL_ENUM_ELEMENT_VAL_STR( element, value, descr ) DECL_ENUM_ELEMENT_STR( element, descr )

    #define END_ENUM( ENUM_NAME ) default: return "Unknown value"; } } ;

#endif

then in any header file you make the enum declaration, day enum.h

#include "EnumToString.h"

BEGIN_ENUM(Days)
{
    DECL_ENUM_ELEMENT(Sunday) //will render "Sunday"
    DECL_ENUM_ELEMENT(Monday) //will render "Monday"
    DECL_ENUM_ELEMENT_STR(Tuesday, "Tuesday string") //will render "Tuesday string"
    DECL_ENUM_ELEMENT(Wednesday) //will render "Wednesday"
    DECL_ENUM_ELEMENT_VAL_STR(Thursday, 500, "Thursday string") // will render "Thursday string" and the enum will have 500 as value
    /* ... and so on */
}
END_ENUM(MyEnum)

then in a file called EnumToString.c:

#include "enum.h"

#define GENERATE_ENUM_STRINGS  // Start string generation

#include "enum.h"             

#undef GENERATE_ENUM_STRINGS   // Stop string generation

then in main.c:

int main(int argc, char* argv[])
{
    Days TheDay = Monday;
    printf( "%d - %s\n", TheDay, GetStringDay(TheDay) ); //will print "1 - Monday"

    TheDay = Thursday;
    printf( "%d - %s\n", TheDay, GetStringDay(TheDay) ); //will print "500 - Thursday string"

    return 0;
}

this will generate "automatically" the strings for any enums declared this way and included in "EnumToString.c"