Setting a default value in my Enum Function

Question

My question is this: how do I set the default value in my function of type Enum, to be one of the values in the Enum. This is my first experience with Enumerations and enumerated functions. I know a decent amount about Intro/Beginner C++.

Example.. Setting the Default value to return HANDHELD ?

Also any advice on making better/clearer questions would be appreciated.

ComputerType SellerList::ReadAndReturnComputerType() const
{
      char type[MAX_NAME_LEN];
      cin >> type;

      if(strcmp(type, "desktop") == 0)
         return DESKTOP;
      else if (strcmp(type, "laptop") == 0)
         return LAPTOP;
      else if(strcmp(type, "tablet") == 0)
         return TABLET;
      else if(strcmp(type, "handheld") == 0)
         return HANDHELD;

 }

Answer 1

Please don't do that kindda of stuff with strcmp and else if all over the place... You're doing c++ !

At least do something like the following piece of code. It's a lot more maintenable and with a bit of improvement you can handle the conversion enum/string and string/enum with the same map (you can even use bimap for this !).

#include <iostream>
#include <map>
#include <string>   

enum ComputerType
{
    DESKTOP,
    LAPTOP,
    TABLET,
    HANDHELD
};

ComputerType ReadAndReturnComputerType()
{
    // I assume this is not multithread othewise there wouldn't be any cin
    static std::map<std::string, ComputerType> type { 
        { "desktop", DESKTOP },
        { "laptop", LAPTOP },
        { "tablet", TABLET },
        { "handheld", HANDHELD } };

    std::string input;
    std::cin >> input;

    auto it = type.find(input);

    // Don't forget to clean the input here !
    // something like:
    //
    // boost::trim(input);
    // boost::to_lower(input);

    if (type.end() == it)
    {
        return HANDHELD;
    }
    return it->second;
}

Answer 2

if you want set the default value before if statement

ComputerType SellerList::ReadAndReturnComputerType() const
{
      ComputerType defType = HANDHELD;
      char type[MAX_NAME_LEN];
      cin >> type;

      if(strcmp(type, "desktop") == 0)
         type = DESKTOP;
      else if (strcmp(type, "laptop") == 0)
         type = LAPTOP;
      else if(strcmp(type, "tablet") == 0)
         type = TABLET;
      else if(strcmp(type, "handheld") == 0)
         type = HANDHELD;
      return defType;
 }