Enum Essentials

Enums (short for enumerations) are a way to assign names to a set of numbers, which makes your code easier to read and manage—especially when working with related constants.

Think of it like giving nicknames to a group of numbers. Instead of writing raw numbers like 0, 1, or 2, you can give them meaningful names like RED, GREEN, and BLUE.

Defining An Enum

Here’s how to define an enum in C:

enum Color { RED, GREEN, BLUE };

This creates a new type called Color, and it automatically assigns numbers starting from 0 to each name:

• RED is 0

• GREEN is 1

• BLUE is 2

You can use it like this:

enum Color favoriteColor = GREEN;
printf("My favorite color number is: %d", favoriteColor);