text: digitalmars.D - enum <-> string
  - Andrew Fedoniouk (37/37) Mar 10 2005 Gentlemen, let me summarize this enum/string discussion.
  - Andrew Fedoniouk (4/4) Mar 10 2005 And yet... this task has nothing common with reflection.
  - Charlie Patterson (13/17) Mar 14 2005 Maybe the point is that, instead of specifying strings to go with enums,...
  Gentlemen, let me summarize this enum/string discussion. Task/goals: Handy and natural (a.k.a. aesthetically acceptable) support of 1) enum -> string (a.k.a. toString(in E e)) 2) string -> enum (a.k.a. bool fromString(in str, out E e)) in D language. Let's assume that these task are pretty frequent/popular in programming practice. Let's also assume that number of items (enum values) in such stringized enums is not too much more than 30-40 items. Typical task: color name <-> color value definition and support (16 standard colors) So all this is about relatively small sets of values. For bigger sets there are specialized and highly effective solutions : perfect hashes (gperf.exe), compiled ternary trees and the like. Requirements: a) Desired "enum with string" syntax notation should allow to write symbolic (D namespace) name of enum constant with optional value and ideally "on the same line" some textual (UI) description or enum text value. b) Implementation of lookups enum -> string and string -> enum should not use too much extra code (increase size of executable) but it should be reasonable fast - lookup computational complexity ideally should be between O(log(n)) - O(n). c) Very desirable - to design notation/solution allowing to "plug-in" different lookup mechanisms on the same notation base. d) Solution may not support internationalization (dynamic), but it is desiribale. Let's start discussion from these points. Imho make sense to review Java 1.5 enums at least. Andrew.
  Mar 10 2005
  And yet... this task has nothing common with reflection. These two has completely different goals. enum <-> string task is close to implemetation of static associative array initializers.
  Mar 10 2005
  "Andrew Fedoniouk" <news terrainformatica.com> wrote in message news:d0rgbr$1603$1 digitaldaemon.com...And yet... this task has nothing common with reflection. These two has completely different goals. enum <-> string task is close to implemetation of static associative array initializers.Maybe the point is that, instead of specifying strings to go with enums, you simply get the enum label. This would be handy for programming and very simple: enum Colors { Red, Green, Blue }; enum ProcTypes { PT_Threaded, PT_Compartment }; Colors C = Green; ProcTypes P = PT_Threaded; println( "%s %s", C, P ); produced "Red PT_Threaded". It's not as verbose or "user-friendly" as supplying your own strings, but it is better than printing "1 1".
  Mar 14 2005