Enum or enumeration is a user-defined data type. Enums have named constants that represent integral values. Enums are used to make the program more readable and less complex. It lets us define a fixed set of possible values and later define variables having one of those values.

Creating an Enum element

We use the enum keyword to define the enum.

The syntax for defining an enum is:

enum enum_name
{
    element1,
    element2,
    element3
};

Here’s one example of how an enum is defined and used in main as a user-defined data type.

enum Meal
{
    breakfast,
    lunch,
    dinner
};

Initialising and using enum elements

Since every enum element gets assigned a value to it, they could be used to compare if a particular variable stores the same value.

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
 
enum Meal
{
    breakfast,
    lunch,
    dinner
};
 
int main()
{
    Meal m1 = dinner;
    if (m1 == 2)
    {
        cout << "The value of dinner is " << dinner << endl;
    }
}

Output:

The value of dinner is 2