I have no fixed idea about how to do this as yet - a template solution is brimming slowly - but I'm thinking it'd be perhaps better to have something built-in, e.g.

    public enum ORJ_FLAG
    {
            ORDERFIELDS                     =   0x0001 /*!< Arranges the fields in alphabetical order */
        ,   ELIDEBLANKRECORDS     =   0x0002 /*!< Causes blank records to be ignored */
    };

would become:

    public enum ORJ_FLAG
    {
            ORDERFIELDS                     =   0x0001     "Arranges the fields in alphabetical order"
        ,   ELIDEBLANKRECORDS     =   0x0002     "Causes blank records to be ignored"
    };


Since enum values may never be strings, there's no (immediately obvious) syntactic conflict.

These would be associated with a mechasism for intrinsically creating the toString() for the given enum. Any values not marked would be given the stringised form of the enum value name.

There are issues of localisation that might mitigate against this, but I think an overloadable mechanism would be of great benefit to many users who would avoid large amounts of hassle.

"Matthew" <admin.hat@stlsoft.dot.org> wrote in message news:d0gu1a$1n8b$1@digitaldaemon.com...
>I have no fixed idea about how to do this as yet - a template solution is brimming slowly - but I'm thinking it'd be
> perhaps better to have something built-in, e.g.
>
>    public enum ORJ_FLAG
>    {
>            ORDERFIELDS                     =   0x0001 /*!< Arranges the
> fields in alphabetical order */
>        ,   ELIDEBLANKRECORDS     =   0x0002 /*!< Causes blank records to
> be ignored */
>    };
>
> would become:
>
>    public enum ORJ_FLAG
>    {
>            ORDERFIELDS                     =   0x0001     "Arranges the
> fields in alphabetical order"
>        ,   ELIDEBLANKRECORDS     =   0x0002     "Causes blank records to
> be ignored"
>    };
>

This could be easily done by using a statically initialised AA.. Which isn't yet possible, unfortunately. Anyway, enum.toString() would be the right method to get this string (and the literal enum value's name if no custom is given?)

L.

"Lionello Lunesu" <lio@lunesu.removethis.com> wrote in message news:d0h8ck$21rg$1@digitaldaemon.com...
>
> "Matthew" <admin.hat@stlsoft.dot.org> wrote in message news:d0gu1a$1n8b$1@digitaldaemon.com...
>>I have no fixed idea about how to do this as yet - a template solution is brimming slowly - but I'm thinking it'd be
>> perhaps better to have something built-in, e.g.
>>
>>    public enum ORJ_FLAG
>>    {
>>            ORDERFIELDS                     =   0x0001 /*!< Arranges the fields in alphabetical order */
>>        ,   ELIDEBLANKRECORDS     =   0x0002 /*!< Causes blank records to be ignored */
>>    };
>>
>> would become:
>>
>>    public enum ORJ_FLAG
>>    {
>>            ORDERFIELDS                     =   0x0001     "Arranges the fields in alphabetical order"
>>        ,   ELIDEBLANKRECORDS     =   0x0002     "Causes blank records to be ignored"
>>    };
>>
>
> This could be easily done by using a statically initialised AA.. Which isn't yet possible, unfortunately. Anyway, enum.toString() would be the right method to get this string (and the literal enum value's name if no custom is given?)

This is where I'm at so far:

    /* /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
     * Structs
     */

    private struct EnumString
    {
        int     value;
        char[]  str;
    };

    private template enum_to_string(T)
    {
        char[] enum_to_string(EnumString[] strings, T t)
        {
            // First version is simple - just a linear search

            foreach(EnumString s; strings)
            {
                if(cast(int)(t) == s.value)
                {
                    return s.str;
                }
            }

            return "<unknown>";
        }
    }

    /* /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
     * Enumerations
     */

    /** Flags that moderate the creation of Databases */
    public enum ORJ_FLAG
    {
            ORDER_FIELDS                    =   0x0001  /*!< Arranges the fields in alphabetical order
*/
        ,   ELIDE_BLANK_RECORDS             =   0x0002  /*!< Causes blank records to be ignored
*/
    }

    public char[] toString(ORJ_FLAG f)
    {
        const EnumString    strings[] =
        [
                {   ORJ_FLAG.ORDER_FIELDS,           "Arranges the fields in alphabetical order" }
            ,   {   ORJ_FLAG.ELIDE_BLANK_RECORDS,    "Causes blank records to be ignored"        }
        ];

        return enum_to_string!(ORJ_FLAG)(strings, f);
    }