Accessing an enum in a namespace

Question

In a header I have a setup like this

namespace NS {
    typedef enum { GOOD, BAD, UGLY }enum_thing;
    class Thing {
        void thing(enum_thing elem);
    }
}

and of course another cpp file that goes along with that header. Then I have a thread cpp file that contains main(). In this cpp file I use that enum to pass to the method thing().

using namespace NS;
int main() {
    Thing t();
    t.thing(BAD);
}

and of course I get other errors from G++ saying BAD was not declared. Any help on how I could overcome this error?

Answer 1

Can you avoid using a typedef? Just do:

enum Foobar {good, bad, hello};

Answer 2

After correcting numerous little syntax errors in the sample code, it compiles just fine for me. Check that you've spelled the names correctly. Can you access the enum as NS::BAD? Perhaps you haven't included the correct header? Make sure you have #include "FileWithEnum.h" at the top.

namespace NS {
    typedef enum { GOOD, BAD, UGLY }enum_thing;
    class Thing {
        public:
            void thing(enum_thing elem){}
    };
}


using namespace NS;
int main() {
    Thing t;
    t.thing(BAD);
    return 0;
}

Test it yourself: http://codepad.org/Uw0XjOlF

Answer 3

It should work. It does for me (the variant by Mystagogue should also work). I understand you had some other error messages ?

You probably just have to fix the header to be syntaxically correct, like putting a semi-colon at the end of class Thing, etc. When the header will be OK, the message about BAD not in namespace should also disappear.