Easy way to use variables of enum types as string in C?

Question

Here\'s what I am trying to do:

typedef enum { ONE, TWO, THREE } Numbers;

I am trying to write a function that would do a switch case sim

Answer 1

Check out the ideas at Mu Dynamics Research Labs - Blog Archive. I found this earlier this year - I forget the exact context where I came across it - and have adapted it into this code. We can debate the merits of adding an E at the front; it is applicable to the specific problem addressed, but not part of a general solution. I stashed this away in my 'vignettes' folder - where I keep interesting scraps of code in case I want them later. I'm embarrassed to say that I didn't keep a note of where this idea came from at the time.

Header: paste1.h

/*
@(#)File:           $RCSfile: paste1.h,v $
@(#)Version:        $Revision: 1.1 $
@(#)Last changed:   $Date: 2008/05/17 21:38:05 $
@(#)Purpose:        Automated Token Pasting
*/

#ifndef JLSS_ID_PASTE_H
#define JLSS_ID_PASTE_H

/*
 * Common case when someone just includes this file.  In this case,
 * they just get the various E* tokens as good old enums.
 */
#if !defined(ETYPE)
#define ETYPE(val, desc) E##val,
#define ETYPE_ENUM
enum {
#endif /* ETYPE */

   ETYPE(PERM,  "Operation not permitted")
   ETYPE(NOENT, "No such file or directory")
   ETYPE(SRCH,  "No such process")
   ETYPE(INTR,  "Interrupted system call")
   ETYPE(IO,    "I/O error")
   ETYPE(NXIO,  "No such device or address")
   ETYPE(2BIG,  "Arg list too long")

/*
 * Close up the enum block in the common case of someone including
 * this file.
 */
#if defined(ETYPE_ENUM)
#undef ETYPE_ENUM
#undef ETYPE
ETYPE_MAX
};
#endif /* ETYPE_ENUM */

#endif /* JLSS_ID_PASTE_H */

Example source:

/*
@(#)File:           $RCSfile: paste1.c,v $
@(#)Version:        $Revision: 1.2 $
@(#)Last changed:   $Date: 2008/06/24 01:03:38 $
@(#)Purpose:        Automated Token Pasting
*/

#include "paste1.h"

static const char *sys_errlist_internal[] = {
#undef JLSS_ID_PASTE_H
#define ETYPE(val, desc) desc,
#include "paste1.h"
    0
#undef ETYPE
};

static const char *xerror(int err)
{
    if (err >= ETYPE_MAX || err <= 0)
        return "Unknown error";
    return sys_errlist_internal[err];
}

static const char*errlist_mnemonics[] = {
#undef JLSS_ID_PASTE_H
#define ETYPE(val, desc) [E ## val] = "E" #val,
#include "paste1.h"
#undef ETYPE
};

#include 

int main(void)
{
    int i;

    for (i = 0; i < ETYPE_MAX; i++)
    {
        printf("%d: %-6s: %s\n", i, errlist_mnemonics[i], xerror(i));
    }
    return(0);
}

Not necessarily the world's cleanest use of the C pre-processor - but it does prevent writing the material out multiple times.