Back to some basic stuff (enum range).

In the book The C++ Programming Language

It reads

Quote:

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"An enumerator can be initialized by a constant expression of integral type. The range
of an enumeration holds all the enumeration's enumerator values rounded up to the nearest binary power minus 1"

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Code:

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enum e1 { dark, light };  // range 0:1
enum e2 { a = 3, b = 9 }; // range: 0:15
enum e3 { min = -10, max = 1000000 }; // range -1048576:1048575

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I don't understand how you get the ranges. Could anyone explain a little bit?
Thanks
Jack

Quote:

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enum e1 { dark, light }; // range 0:1

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Depends on the values of dark & light.
If dark = 0 & light = 1 then the values can be represented in one bit.
The range of an unsigned 1 bit number is 0 to 1

Quote:

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enum e2 { a = 3, b = 9 }; // range: 0:15

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In binary 3 = 11 & 9 = 1001
You need a minimum of 4 bits to cover this range.
The range of an unsigned 4 bit number is 0000 to 1111 = 0 to 15

Quote:

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enum e3 { min = -10, max = 1000000 }; // range -1048576:1048575

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In binary, 1000000 = 11110100001001000000, which needs 20 bits.
As the other number is negative and assuming we are using 2's complement to represent negative numbers,
we need 21 bits.
1000000 = 011110100001001000000
-10 = 111111111111111110110
The range of a 2's complement 21 bit number is -1048576 to 1048575

Thanks John for your detailed explanation, I get it now

Sorry, being a bit dumb there. :blush:
dark & light by definition will have the values of 0 & 1