Question

I have a simple class that uses an enum for “status”. When I use the getStatus member function, it does indeed return “Busy” but when I print the value, it shows a “1”. How can I print “Busy” instead of 1?

http://codepad.org/9NDlxxyU demonstration

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

enum Status{Idle, Busy};
class text
{
public:
    void SetStatus(Status s);
    Status getStatus();
private:
    Status s;       
};
void text::SetStatus(Status s)
{
    this->s = s;
}
Status text::getStatus()
{
    return this->s;
}

int main()
{
    text myText;
    myText.SetStatus(Busy);
    cout << myText.getStatus() << endl; //outputs 1, should output "Busy"
}

Answer 1

A fully working edit is live here: http://ideone.com/WFo4g

Add:

std::ostream& operator<<(std::ostream& os, const Status status)
{
    switch (status)
    {
        case Idle: return os << "Idle";
        case Busy: return os << "Busy";
        default:   return os << "Status:" << status;
    }

    return os << "<error>";
}