Enumerated types

Enumerated types
Enumerated types are defined using the keyword enum. Enumerated types are simply another way to name constants. For example


   enum Day {SUNDAY, MONDAY, TUESDAy, WEDNESDAY, THURSDAY, FRIDAY, SATURDAY};

Be default, the identifiers are given int values, starting at zero. So, SUNDAY has the value zero, MONDAY has the value one, and so on.

You can give them different values if you'd like:


   enum Shape {RECTANGLE=20, CIRCLE=30, TRIANGLE=40};

Assignment is the only operatorion defined for enumerated types. You can use ints to do some manipulation, but only by casting back and forth. For example:


   Day payday = FRIDAY;
   int i = payday;           // legal cast, i is 5
   Day weekend = Day(++i);   // cast back to Day type, weekend is SATURDAY

Note that C/C++ enumerated types have nothing to do with Java's Enumeration class.