Initialize array of strings indexed by enumeration in C

Question

I am hoping to make an array of strings based on an enumeration in C programming language. Ideally I would like to declare this as a constant, so I would like to declare it at compile time rather than fill it in during my program execution.

As an example, say I have an enumeration:

enum example
{
 RED=0,
 YELLOW,
 BLUE
};

I would like to initialize an array of strings as such:

array[RED]= "apple";
array[YELLOW] = "school bus";
array[BLUE] = "Ocean";

Is there a way that I can declare this as a constant something along the lines of:

const char array[3][12] = 
{
 array[RED]= "apple", 
 array[YELLOW] = "school bus", 
 array[BLUE] = "Ocean"
};

Rather than having to fill in an array of strings as:

const char array[3][12] = {"apple", "school bus", "Ocean"};

You can use [designated initializers](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/47202557/what-is-a-designated-initializer-in-c). — Sander De Dycker, Oct 11 '19 at 13:21

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 11 '19 at 13:32

3

You can do it for example the following way

enum example {  RED = 0,  YELLOW,  BLUE };

const char array[3][12] = 
{
    [RED] = "apple", 
    [YELLOW] = "school bus", 
    [BLUE] = "Ocean"
};

answered Oct 11 '19 at 13:32

Vlad from Moscow

301,070
26
186
335

Perfect! That's what I was hoping to achieve. Thanks a bunch – Beau R Oct 11 '19 at 13:41

Initialize array of strings indexed by enumeration in C

1 Answers1