enumerating all enum names/values in C

Question

How can I enumerate all enum names and values in C to print it like

printf("Name: %s, value: %d\n", name, value);

?

I'm not sure what you expect to get for an enum name in C or looping through it. Enums are just constant values. Would you mind elaborating on the use case? — Benjamin Gruenbaum, Nov 17 '13 at 15:21
Something like `Enum.GetValues` or `Enum.GetNames` in C# - I'm just curious if it's possible in C. — w.b, Nov 17 '13 at 15:23
No, it's not. C# has a notion of enum types in run time that C does not have. Just think of C enums as integer values. You can loop through the values in a normal for loop `for(i=FIRSTVALUE,i — Benjamin Gruenbaum, Nov 17 '13 at 15:25
possible duplicate of [Get enum value by name](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/18070763/get-enum-value-by-name) — hyde, Nov 17 '13 at 15:35

score 5 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 17 '13 at 16:02

Check out the X macro:

#define COLORS \
    X(Cred, "red") \
    X(Cblue, "blue") \
    X(Cgreen, "green")

#define X(a, b) a,
enum Color { COLORS };
#undef X


#define X(a, b) b,
static char *ColorStrings[] = { COLORS };
#undef X

printf("%s\n", ColorStrings[Cred]); // output: red

score 2 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 10:31

You can't, at least not directly. There are a few solutions though.

First, if you don't actually need the names, you can simply have an end marker in the enum, if values are sequential:

enum my_vals { FIRST, SECOND, LAST_my_vals };
...
for (enum my_vals it = FIRST ; it < LAST_my_vals ; ++it) {
    ....
}

But if you do need the names, you can adapt this question: Get enum value by name

Then you will have a array with all the values, and can iterate the array.

enumerating all enum names/values in C

2 Answers2