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Mahfuz Shaikh
Mahfuz Shaikh

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Explain Enumeration in computing

Can you please explain to me what is Enumeration in computing.

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Ben Lovy • Edited

@nestedsoftware gave a solid answer about what an enum type is, but "enumeration" just means to make a list of things in sequence, or count them. You could enumerate a list - for instance, in Rust:

['a','b','c'].iter().enumerate();

This gives back an iterator that would look like this when collected:

[(0, 'a'), (1, 'b'), (2, 'c')]

The elements in this list have been "enumerated", or counted.

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mah3uz profile image
Mahfuz Shaikh

Thank you, now it’s making sense to me.

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Nested Software • Edited

Are you referring to an ‘enum’ type? If so, it’s a type that allows you to define a finite sequence of named values for that type. Here’s an example from typescript:

enum Cardsuit {
    Clubs, 
    Diamonds, 
    Hearts, 
    Spades
};

var c: Cardsuit = Cardsuit.Diamonds;

Not all languages have enums. You can read more about it on Wikipedia: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enumerated...

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Mahfuz Shaikh

Thank you