Reusing enum values in separate enum types

c++, enums, visual-c++

Solution

You can, and should, include your enums in a `namespace`:

namespace DeviceState
{
    enum DeviceState{ UNKNOWN, ACTIVE, DISABLED, NOTPRESENT, UNPLUGGED };
}
namespace DeviceType
{
    enum DeviceType{ UNKNOWN, PLAYBACK, RECORDING };
}

//...

DeviceType::DeviceType x = DeviceType::UNKNOWN;

Problem

Is there a way to reuse the same enum value in separate types? I'd like to be able to something like the following: ``` enum DeviceState { UNKNOWN, ACTIVE, DISABLED, NOTPRESENT, UNPLUGGED }; enum DeviceType { UNKNOWN, PLAYBACK, RECORDING }; int _tmain(int argc, _TCHAR* argv[]) { DeviceState deviceState = DeviceState::UNKNOWN; DeviceType deviceType = DeviceType::UNKNOWN; return 0; } ``` This makes sense to me, but not to the C++ compiler- it complains: `error C2365: 'UNKNOWN' : redefinition; previous definition was 'enumerator'` on line 2 of the above. Is there a correct way of doing this, or am I supposed to always use unique enum values? I can't imagine this is always possible to guarantee if I'm including someone else's code.

Original source