Converting enum types

[kfmfe04]

Suppose I have:

class MyClass {
public:
    enum eNSEW { kN, kS, kE, kW };

    static int ToInt( eNSEW nsew ) { ... }
    static string ToStr( eNSEW nsew ) { ... }
private:
    ...
};

Is there a better way to code this up (maybe using C++'s type conversion mechanisms?) so I don't have to call ToInt() or ToStr()? In other words, I would like this call to work:

void foobar( string msg ) { ... }

static MyClass::eNSEW mydir = MyClass::kS;
void myfunc( void ) {
  foobar( mydir );    // CRITICAL CALL HERE --------------------
}

without having to call MyClass::ToStr()

Is there any way to do this without "upgrading" the enum to a full-fledged class?
If there is, how?

[helios]

Is there any way to do this without "upgrading" the enum to a full-fledged class?

No. enums and std::string are incompatible. If you had to convert to an integer it would be a different story, but std::strings are complex types.

[kfmfe04]

That's unfortunate that I have to upgrade to a class to get at operator(), which doesn't care if you are converting into a simple or complex type...