Enum Type Safety in C (opens in new tab)

The C standard allows the programmer to define new types, including enumerated types—or "enums"—that improve program readability and type safety. This article explores the specification for enumerated types, the compiler options that improve enum type safety, and why type safety prevents run time errors. The focus is on the GCC and Clang C compilers targeting ARM32 (e.g. Cortex-M MCUs), but the same conclusions should apply to all C targets, including RISCV, x86_64, and ARM64. Table of Conten...