Difference between Enum and Define Statements

by

enum defines a syntactical element.

#define is a pre-preprocessor directive, executed before the compiler sees the code, and therefore is not a language element of C itself.

Generally enums are preferred as they are type-safe and more easily discoverable. Defines are harder to locate and can have complex behavior, for example one piece of code can redefine a #define made by another. This can be hard to track down.

More Related Contents:

  1. Should I use #define, enum or const?
  2. c++ Making a code that displays equations and keep getting the “expression must have integral or unscoped enum type” error
  3. Why are preprocessor macros evil and what are the alternatives?
  4. How do I see a C/C++ source file after preprocessing in Visual Studio?
  5. Easy way to use variables of enum types as string in C?
  6. Is there a simple way to convert C++ enum to string?
  7. Stringification – how does it work?
  8. How to use enums as flags in C++?
  9. Combining C++ and C – how does #ifdef __cplusplus work?
  10. How can I iterate over an enum?
  11. How to easily map c++ enums to strings
  12. Define preprocessor macro through CMake?
  13. Forward declaring an enum in C++
  14. Namespaces in C
  15. Enumerate over an enum in C++
  16. Representing big numbers in source code for readability?
  17. Is it possible to determine if a type is a scoped enumeration type?
  18. Can macros be overloaded by number of arguments?
  19. When can you omit the file extension in an #include directive?
  20. What’s the difference between the WIN32 and _WIN32 defines in C++
  21. Somehow register my classes in a list
  22. How to use C++11 enum class for flags
  23. Can I redefine a C++ macro then define it back?
  24. Is the backslash acceptable in C and C++ #include directives?
  25. How to test if preprocessor symbol is #define’d but has no value?
  26. How does C++ Preprocessors work?
  27. what is the size of an enum type data in C++?
  28. What is the NDEBUG preprocessor macro used for (on different platforms)?
  29. C preprocessor macro specialisation based on an argument
  30. Signedness of enum in C/C99/C++/C++x/GNU C/GNU C99

Leave a Comment