How to: Specify Underlying Types of Enums

  • Article

By default, the underlying type of an enumeration is int. However, you can specify the type to be signed or unsigned forms of int, short, long, __int32, or __int64. You can also use char or bool.

Example

Code

// mcppv2_enum_3.cpp
// compile with: /clr
typedef bool MYBOOL;

public enum class day_bool : MYBOOL {sun = true, mon = false, tue = true, wed = false, thu = true, fri = false, sat = true};
public enum class day_char : char {sun, mon, tue, wed, thu, fri, sat};

int main() {
   // fully qualified names, enumerator not injected into scope
   day_bool a = day_bool::sun, b = day_bool::mon;   

   System::Console::WriteLine(a);
   bool c = (bool)a;
   System::Console::WriteLine(c);
   c = (bool)b;
   System::Console::WriteLine(c);

   day_char d = day_char::sun, e = day_char::mon;
   System::Console::WriteLine(d);
   char f = (char)d;
   System::Console::WriteLine(f);
   f = (char)e;
   System::Console::WriteLine(f);
   e = day_char::tue;
   f = (char)e;
   System::Console::WriteLine(f);
}

Output

True
True
False
sun
0
1
2

See Also

Reference

enum class