Use of enums in c

Question

I have this enum:

  enum Seasons{
  winter,spring,summer,autumn
  };

what will this code do?

 enum Seasons curr_season;
 curr_season = autumn;
 curr_season = 19;

Thank you!

Answer 1

enum Seasons{
    winter,spring,summer,autumn
};

The above creates the following

winter=0, spring=1, summer=2 and autumn=3

NOTE: enums are just integers! .. It can take negative numbers also!

enum Seasons curr_season;
curr_season = autumn;
/* curr_season will now have 3 assigned */

curr_season = 19;
/* curr_season will now have 19 assigned */

You can run the following code to check this!

#include <stdio.h>

enum Seasons{
        winter,spring,summer,autumn
};

void print_seanons(void)
{
    printf("winter = %d \n", winter);
    printf("spring = %d \n", spring);
    printf("summer = %d \n", summer);
    printf("autumn = %d \n", autumn);
    return;
}

int main(void)
{
    enum Seasons curr_season;
    print_seanons();

    curr_season = autumn;
    printf("curr_season = %d \n", curr_season);
    curr_season = 19; 
    printf("curr_season = %d \n", curr_season);
    return 0;

}

Answer 2

Enums constants are of type int in c. Although enums are not explicitly of type int, the conversion between enumerated types, and ints is silent. There is usually no constraint checking on enums, so your code is functionally equivalent to:

int curr_season;
curr_season = 3;
curr_season = 19;

Answer 3

Enums are integral values, so it will assign the value 19 to curr_season.

Cross use (assigning integer values to an enum) is considered poor programming practice and should be avoided.