In C, enums (short for enumerations) allow you to create named constant values representing a set of related integers. They make the code more readable and maintainable by giving meaningful names to numeric values. Here's a simple explanation with an example:
#include <stdio.h>
// Define an enumeration named 'Weekday'
enum Weekday {
MONDAY, // 0
TUESDAY, // 1
WEDNESDAY, // 2
THURSDAY, // 3
FRIDAY, // 4
SATURDAY, // 5
SUNDAY // 6
};
int main() {
// Declare a variable of type 'Weekday'
enum Weekday today;
// Assign a value to the variable
today = TUESDAY;
// Check the value and print the corresponding day
switch (today) {
case MONDAY:
printf("Today is Monday.\n");
break;
case TUESDAY:
printf("Today is Tuesday.\n");
break;
case WEDNESDAY:
printf("Today is Wednesday.\n");
break;
case THURSDAY:
printf("Today is Thursday.\n");
break;
case FRIDAY:
printf("Today is Friday.\n");
break;
case SATURDAY:
printf("Today is Saturday.\n");
break;
case SUNDAY:
printf("Today is Sunday.\n");
break;
default:
printf("Invalid day.\n");
}
return 0;
}
In this example
Weekday using the enum keyword. Inside the enumeration, we list the days of the week. By default, the values start from 0, so MONDAY is assigned 0, TUESDAY is assigned 1, and so on.main() function, we declare a variable today of type Weekday.TUESDAY to the variable today.switch statement to check the value of today and print the corresponding day of the week.When you run this program, it will print:
Today is Tuesday.
This demonstrates the use of enums in C to create named constant values representing a set of related integers.