Question

The new C++ (C++0x or C++11) has an new kind of enum, an “enum class” where the names are scoped to the enum (among other things).

enum class E {
    VAL1, VAL2
};

void fun() {
    E e = E::VAL1;  // Qualified name
}

I’m wondering, however, if I can selectively use the unqualified name in a certain scope. Something like:

void fun() {
    using E::*;
    E e = VAL1;
    switch (e) {
        case VAL2: ...

I see I can write using E::VAL1 and get one value. But I don’t want to do that for every value of a larger enum.

Answer 1

There is no way to do this in C++11. Just in case you are not aware of it – you get the E::Val1 notation even for an unscoped enumeration. For such an enumeration, you have Val1 accessible with and without the use of E::.

But you cannot take a scoped enumeration and selectively make all its enumerators visible in a given scope. It should also be noted that you can not write using E::Val1. The spec explicitly forbids this, your compiler just doesn’t reject it yet.