Objective-c – enum values: NSInteger or int

cocoaenumsnsintegerobjective ctypedef

tl;dr Version

How are the data types of an enum's constants guaranteed to be NSUInteger instead of unsigned int when declaring an enum thusly:

enum {
    NSNullCellType = 0,
    NSTextCellType = 1,
    NSImageCellType = 2
};
typedef NSUInteger NSCellType;

The typedef to NSUInteger does not appear to be tied to the enum declaration in any way.

Full Version

I was reading through Apple's 64-Bit Transition Guide for Cocoa for some guidance on enum values and I came away with a question. Here's a (lengthy) quote from the Enumeration Constants section, emphasis mine:

A problem with enumeration (enum) constants is that their data types are frequently indeterminate. In other words, enum constants are not predictably unsigned int. With conventionally constructed enumerations, the compiler actually sets the underlying type based on what it finds. The underlying type can be (signed) int or even long. Take the following example:

type enum {
    MyFlagError = -1,
    MyFlagLow = 0,
    MyFlagMiddle = 1,
    MyFlagHigh = 2
} MyFlagType;

The compiler looks at this declaration and, finding a negative value assigned to one of the member constants, declares the underlying type of the enumeration int. If the range of values for the members does not fit into an int or unsigned int, then the base type silently becomes 64-bit (long). The base type of quantities defined as enumerations can thus change silently size to accord with the values in the enumeration. This can happen whether you're compiling 32-bit or 64-bit. Needless to say, this situation presents obstacles for binary compatibility.

As a remedy for this problem, Apple has decided to be more explicit about the enumeration type in the Cocoa API. Instead of declaring arguments in terms of the enumeration, the header files now separately declare a type for the enumeration whose size can be specified. The members of the enumeration and their values are declared and assigned as before. For example, instead of this:

typedef enum {
    NSNullCellType = 0,
    NSTextCellType = 1,
    NSImageCellType = 2
} NSCellType;

there is now this:

enum {
    NSNullCellType = 0,
    NSTextCellType = 1,
    NSImageCellType = 2
};
typedef NSUInteger NSCellType;

The enumeration type is defined in terms of NSInteger or NSUInteger to make the base enumeration type 64-bit capable on 64-bit architectures.

My question is this: given that the typedef doesn't appear to be tied explicitly to the enum declaration, how does one know if their data types are unsigned int or NSUInteger?

Best Answer

There is now NS_ENUM starting Xcode 4.5:

typedef NS_ENUM(NSUInteger, NSCellType) {
    NSNullCellType = 0,
    NSTextCellType = 1,
    NSImageCellType = 2
};

And you can consider NS_OPTIONS if you work with binary flags:

typedef NS_OPTIONS(NSUInteger, MyCellFlag) {
    MyTextCellFlag = 1 << 0,
    MyImageCellFlag = 1 << 1,
};

Related Solutions

C# – What does the [Flags] Enum Attribute mean in C#

The [Flags] attribute should be used whenever the enumerable represents a collection of possible values, rather than a single value. Such collections are often used with bitwise operators, for example:

var allowedColors = MyColor.Red | MyColor.Green | MyColor.Blue;

Note that the [Flags] attribute doesn't enable this by itself - all it does is allow a nice representation by the .ToString() method:

enum Suits { Spades = 1, Clubs = 2, Diamonds = 4, Hearts = 8 }
[Flags] enum SuitsFlags { Spades = 1, Clubs = 2, Diamonds = 4, Hearts = 8 }

...

var str1 = (Suits.Spades | Suits.Diamonds).ToString();
           // "5"
var str2 = (SuitsFlags.Spades | SuitsFlags.Diamonds).ToString();
           // "Spades, Diamonds"

It is also important to note that [Flags] does not automatically make the enum values powers of two. If you omit the numeric values, the enum will not work as one might expect in bitwise operations, because by default the values start with 0 and increment.

Incorrect declaration:

[Flags]
public enum MyColors
{
    Yellow,  // 0
    Green,   // 1
    Red,     // 2
    Blue     // 3
}

The values, if declared this way, will be Yellow = 0, Green = 1, Red = 2, Blue = 3. This will render it useless as flags.

Here's an example of a correct declaration:

[Flags]
public enum MyColors
{
    Yellow = 1,
    Green = 2,
    Red = 4,
    Blue = 8
}

To retrieve the distinct values in your property, one can do this:

if (myProperties.AllowedColors.HasFlag(MyColor.Yellow))
{
    // Yellow is allowed...
}

or prior to .NET 4:

if((myProperties.AllowedColors & MyColor.Yellow) == MyColor.Yellow)
{
    // Yellow is allowed...
}

if((myProperties.AllowedColors & MyColor.Green) == MyColor.Green)
{
    // Green is allowed...
}

Under the covers

This works because you used powers of two in your enumeration. Under the covers, your enumeration values look like this in binary ones and zeros:

 Yellow: 00000001
 Green:  00000010
 Red:    00000100
 Blue:   00001000

Similarly, after you've set your property AllowedColors to Red, Green and Blue using the binary bitwise OR | operator, AllowedColors looks like this:

myProperties.AllowedColors: 00001110

So when you retrieve the value you are actually performing bitwise AND & on the values:

myProperties.AllowedColors: 00001110
             MyColor.Green: 00000010
             -----------------------
                            00000010 // Hey, this is the same as MyColor.Green!

The None = 0 value

And regarding the use of 0 in your enumeration, quoting from MSDN:

[Flags]
public enum MyColors
{
    None = 0,
    ....
}

Use None as the name of the flag enumerated constant whose value is zero. You cannot use the None enumerated constant in a bitwise AND operation to test for a flag because the result is always zero. However, you can perform a logical, not a bitwise, comparison between the numeric value and the None enumerated constant to determine whether any bits in the numeric value are set.

You can find more info about the flags attribute and its usage at msdn and designing flags at msdn

C# – How to cast int to enum

From an int:

YourEnum foo = (YourEnum)yourInt;

From a string:

YourEnum foo = (YourEnum) Enum.Parse(typeof(YourEnum), yourString);

// The foo.ToString().Contains(",") check is necessary for enumerations marked with an [Flags] attribute
if (!Enum.IsDefined(typeof(YourEnum), foo) && !foo.ToString().Contains(","))
{
    throw new InvalidOperationException($"{yourString} is not an underlying value of the YourEnum enumeration.")
}

Update:

From number you can also

YourEnum foo = (YourEnum)Enum.ToObject(typeof(YourEnum) , yourInt);