enum string comparison

Question

I need to compare an enum as a whole to one string, so the whole contents of the enum is checked.

Wanted something like:

NSString *colString = [[NSString aloc] initWithString:@"threeSilver"];


typedef enum {
oneGreen,
twoBlue, 
threeSilver
}numbersAndColours;

if (colString == numbersAndColours) {
//Do cool stuff
}

But obviously I can't do that, maybe a struct... sorry, I'm new to C please help?

BTW: I know NSString isn't C, but figured this question was more C, than Obj-C.

Thanks

Answer 1

In C you'd have to write a function for that. It would essentially be a switch statement.

char* colour_of(enum numbersAndColours c)
{
    switch( c ) {
    case oneGreen:
        return "oneGreen";
        break;
    case twoBlue:
        return "twoBlue";
        break;
    /* ... */
    default:
        return "donno";
    }
}

You can use the function then like so:

{
    char* nac;
    nac = colour_of(numbersAndColours);
    if( strncmp(colString, nac, colStringLen) == 0 )
        /* ... */
}

If colString doesn't match any of the enum elements it won't match numbersAndColours. There is no need to compare it against all of the elements.