enum to string function

[MonarchDodra]

I have this basic program:

enum Color {Black, White};
Color myColor = White;

std::cout << "My color is " << myColor << std::endl

with out put: "Mycolor is 1".
What I want is: "My color is White".

I'm having trouble implementing a function to do this. I can see several (3) solutions:

1. The best: Finding a way to overcharge the operator "<<" when applied on an "Color" object, to return a "string". I'm not sure at all how to do this.

2. Write a function which would basically be "String Color2String(Color)". This would allow me to simply write:
std::cout << "My color is " << Color2String(myColor) << std::endl
However, I am not really sure how to return the string item, without creating a memory leak. Would it be possible maybe to define it as a member of the string class, and write this?:
std::cout << "My color is " << String::Color2String(myColor) << std::endl

3. This solution would just consist in putting a string as function input parameter. I do not like this solution, because it would require a reprocess line of code (or more in case of multiple colors), as such:
Color2String(myString, myColor);
std::cout << "My color is " << myString << std::endl

The actual core of the function would be nothing more than a simple switch statement, but I'm having trouble declaring my function, and returning the result. Can I get some help please? Thank you for your time

[rsodimbakam]

Simple way is put a Switch statemetn over the enum values and print it accordingly.
like this

switch(colors)
{
case 1:
cout << "My color is White";
break;
case 2:
cout << "My color is Black"
break;
}

[greve]

This might be a solution to the approach you mentioned first:

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

enum TColor
    {
    white,
    black
    };

std::ostream& operator<< (std::ostream& rStream, TColor Color)
    {
    switch (Color)
        {
        case white:
            {
            rStream << "WHITE";
            break;
            }
        case black:
            {
            rStream << "BLACK";
            break;
            }
        }
    return rStream;
    }


int main(void)
  {
  TColor CE;

  CE= white;
  cout << "Current color= " << CE << endl;
  CE= black;
  cout << "Current color= " << CE << endl;

  return 1;
  }

Regards,
Thomas

[MonarchDodra]

Wow, thanks a lot, that's exactly what I was looking for. Thx.

Just out of curiosity, why did you name the enum TColor? Is this some convention I don't know about? And what does CE stand for?

Not a very important question, but you seem like the kind of person who knows what he's doing, and I thought I could learn a minor thing or two

[greve]

TSomething is some sort of convention, saying that it is a datatype NOT being a class (i.e. data only, like enum or struct)
CSomeOtherThing would be a class

CE is nothing of this sort: it's short for ColorEnumerator

Regards,
Thomas

[laserlight]

CE is nothing of this sort: it's short for ColorEnumerator

Then why not just use the name ColorEnumerator? I must admit that I was also rather puzzled as to what CE stood for.

[GNiewerth]

It´s the Delphi naming convention invented by Borland, similar to Microsoft´s MFC naming convention where most classes start with a capital 'C', like 'CWindow' and so on.