Enums in C

enums in C are a datastructure defining a mapping from human-readable variable names to integer values. For example, the cairo_format_t enum in the Cairo library defines the valid colour formats that it knows how to deal with.

Instead of having to remember that 2 stands for CAIRO_FORMAT_A8 when writing C code, the programmer would just use CAIRO_FORMAT_A8 and the compiler would automatically replace this with 2 everywhere it appears.

//~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
// The definition of 'cairo_format_t' in the C header 'cairo.h'
//~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
typedef enum _cairo_format {
    CAIRO_FORMAT_INVALID   = -1,
    CAIRO_FORMAT_ARGB32    = 0,
    CAIRO_FORMAT_RGB24     = 1,
    CAIRO_FORMAT_A8        = 2,
    CAIRO_FORMAT_A1        = 3,
    CAIRO_FORMAT_RGB16_565 = 4,
    CAIRO_FORMAT_RGB30     = 5,
    CAIRO_FORMAT_RGB96F    = 6,
    CAIRO_FORMAT_RGBA128F  = 7
} cairo_format_t;

Enums in R

R doesn’t have the concept of an enum, so in cairocore they are implemented as named lists of integers.

Each enum has documentation accessible via the standard help mechanism e.g. ?cairo_format_t

cairo_format_t

#> $CAIRO_FORMAT_INVALID
#> [1] -1
#> 
#> $CAIRO_FORMAT_ARGB32
#> [1] 0
#> 
#> $CAIRO_FORMAT_RGB24
#> [1] 1
#> 
#> $CAIRO_FORMAT_A8
#> [1] 2
#> 
#> $CAIRO_FORMAT_A1
#> [1] 3
#> 
#> $CAIRO_FORMAT_RGB16_565
#> [1] 4
#> 
#> $CAIRO_FORMAT_RGB30
#> [1] 5
#> 
#> $CAIRO_FORMAT_RGB96F
#> [1] 6
#> 
#> $CAIRO_FORMAT_RGBA128F
#> [1] 7

So to access an enum value by its name, you would write:

cairo_format_t$CAIRO_FORMAT_A8

#> [1] 2

To look-up an enum name by its value there is a helper function enum_lookup() -

enum_lookup(cairo_format_t, 2)

#> [1] "CAIRO_FORMAT_A8"

Compatability issues

One downside of implementing enums like this in R is that there is little in the way of checking of values.

In C, if you tried to use CAIRO_FORMAT_A_DOES_NOT_EXIST then the compiler would throw an error.

In R, using cairo_format_t$CAIRO_FORMAT_A_DOES_NOT_EXIST will return a NULL, which would then mean a likely error somewhere later in the program.

Possibilities

To avoid the use of undefined enums, a new datatype/class could be defined which was stricter about raising an error if a supplied enum name didn’t exist.

Technical - C enums in R

Enums in C

Enums in R

Compatability issues

Possibilities