enum Values to NSString (iOS)

Question

I have an enum holding several values:

enum {value1, value2, value3} myValue;

In a certain point in my app, I wish to check which value of

Answer 1

If I can offer another solution that has the added benefit of type checking, warnings if you are missing an enum value in your conversion, readability, and brevity.

For your given example: typedef enum { value1, value2, value3 } myValue; you can do this:

NSString *NSStringFromMyValue(myValue type) {
    const char* c_str = 0;
#define PROCESS_VAL(p) case(p): c_str = #p; break;
    switch(type) {
            PROCESS_VAL(value1);
            PROCESS_VAL(value2);
            PROCESS_VAL(value3);
    }
#undef PROCESS_VAL

    return [NSString stringWithCString:c_str encoding:NSASCIIStringEncoding];
}

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As a side note. It is a better approach to declare your enums as so:

typedef NS_ENUM(NSInteger, MyValue) {
    Value1 = 0,
    Value2,
    Value3
}

With this you get type-safety (NSInteger in this case), you set the expected enum offset (= 0).