variable of enums as an output

[rremigoso4310]

Hi. I'm having some troubles trying to convert my date from this format (ex.) 2/2/2015 into February 2, 2015. I'm suppose to change the month 2 into its month name from the enumeration. Is it right to use array to input the month, day, and year?


#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

enum monthType {JANUARY = 1, FEBRUARY, APRIL, MAY, JUNE, JULY, AUGUST, SEPTEMBER, OCTOBER, NOVEMBER, DECEMBER};

int main()
{
monthType monthName;
char month[2], day[2], year[5];

cout<<"Enter the date (mm/dd/yyyy): ";
cin.get(month, '/');
cin.get(day, '/');
cin.get(year, 5);

monthName = static_cast<monthType>(month[]);

cout<<monthName;
return 0;
}

[MiiNiPaa]

Enumeration are just a good way of using named constants instead of nondescript numbers. They are not names or something, nor they exist in compiled code.

You can use simple string array for that:

std::string months[] = {"Zeroember", "January", /*...*/ "December"};
int month;
//fill month
std::cout << months[month];

[rremigoso4310]

Ahhh... so in otherwords the identifiers of the enumeration are just to "pretty" up the integer values then?

[MiiNiPaa]

Yes, to abstract from magic numbers and to give you some type safety (mostly for scoped enums)

[rremigoso4310]

Thanks for the clarification! Can't believe I spent too much time thinking and going around about the code haha.