aantron/better-enums

Health v2 · maintenance only

Adoption not part of the score

1828 stars · 182 forks observed · 2026-08-28

What it is AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, 2026-08-30, confidence not recorded

Better Enums is a single-header C++ library that adds reflection to enums, enabling string conversion, iteration, and counting at compile time (C++11) or runtime (C++98). It uses a macro-based metaprogram executed by the compiler with no dependencies or generator tools.

Use cases

• convert enum values to and from strings in C++
• iterate over all enum values
• parse a string into an enum safely
• count enum members at compile time
• use enums in constexpr functions and template metaprogramming
• replace unmaintainable enum-to-string switch statements

When to choose

• you need reflective enums in C++ without code generation tools
• you want a zero-dependency, header-only solution
• you need compile-time enum reflection in C++11
• you target freestanding or embedded environments (no heap, no exceptions)

When to avoid

• you need enums declared inside a class (macro limitation)
• you can use C++26 native reflection or a different enum approach
• you prefer non-macro-based enum libraries

Facets

library · maturity stable

serialization developer-tools developer-tools programming-languages parsers cpp cross-platform header-only enum reflection compile-time metaprogramming single-header

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