Number of elements in an enum

Question

In C, is there a nice way to track the number of elements in an enum? I've seen

enum blah {
    FIRST,
    SECOND,
    THIRD,
    LAST
};

But this only works if the items are sequential and start at zero.

Answer 1

Unfortunately, no. There is not.

Answer 2

I don't believe there is. But what would you do with such a number if they are not sequential, and you don't already have a list of them somewhere? And if they are sequential but start at a different number, you could always do:

enum blah {
    FIRST = 128,
    SECOND,
    THIRD,
    END
};
const int blah_count = END - FIRST;

Answer 3

Well, since enums can't change at run-time, the best thing you can do is:

enum blah {
    FIRST = 7,
    SECOND = 15,
    THIRD = 9,
    LAST = 12
};
#define blahcount 4 /* counted manually, keep these in sync */

But I find it difficult to envisage a situation where that information would come in handy. What exactly are you trying to do?

Answer 4

See this SO question about enums in C++ like in Ada.