Getting an "enum is not a class or namespace" error - C++ [duplicate]

Question

I declared an enum (called Direction) in a header file:

enum Direction {LEFT, RIGHT};

Then, i have a constructor that takes a Direction value and set it for another Direction variable (stringDirection).

bool InformationWidget::move(Direction direction){
    stringDirection=direction;

return true;
}

And finally, i have an if statement that checks the value of it:

if (stringDirection == Direction::RIGHT)

This is where i'm getting the error, at that if statement.. any ideas? I tried looking around at previous threads but didn't find anything useful.

Thanks!

EDIT:

Here are my files:

Widget.h

enum class Direction {LEFT, RIGHT};

class Widget {
public:
     virtual bool...
     ...
};

information.h

class InformationWidget: public Widget {
public:
    ...
    Direction stringDirection;
    ...
};

information.cpp

void InformationWidget::show(){

...

if (stringDirection == LEFT) {
... }
}

Answer 1

Declare your enum as enum class or enum struct if you want a scoped enum, i.e. to require the enumerators to be prefixed Direction:::

enum class Direction {LEFT, RIGHT};

Otherwise if you want an old C-style enum then you need to omit the namespace qualifier Direction:: that the error message is complaining about:

if (stringDirection == RIGHT)

Notice that in the latter case the enumerator identifiers will be placed in the global namespace, which might cause them to clash with other identifiers.