print enum value rather name from enum X : string

[Marc]

On Monday, 12 February 2018 at 17:29:47 UTC, Jonathan M Davis 
wrote:
> On Monday, February 12, 2018 17:07:50 Marc via 
> Digitalmars-d-learn wrote:
>> [...]
>
> If you actually use the enum values anywhere other than with 
> anything from std.conv, std.format, or std.stdio, then when 
> they get converted to strings, you get their actual values. 
> It's just that those modules specifically grab the names of the 
> enum members when converting enums to strings, since in all 
> cases other than with strings, it's generally desirable that 
> when converting an enum member to string, you get the name - 
> and with enums with a base type of string, whether you want the 
> name or the value depends on what you're trying to do. Both can 
> be useful.
>
> So, when dealing with std.format, std.conv, and std.stdio, if 
> you want an enum of base type string to be treated as a string, 
> then you'll have to force it with a cast. Anywhere else, if 
> they get converted to string, then you'll get their values. If 
> that is unacceptable for your use case for whatever reason, 
> then you'll have to try a different solution. What solution 
> would then work best would presumably depend on whatever it is 
> you're actually trying to do.
>
> - Jonathan M Davis

Thanks for you always well-thought-out answer. I was going to 
print it with writefln() calls more than anywhere else so to 
avoid casts in all those places, which would make it ugly, I just 
used

> enum foo = "a";
> enum baa = "b";

which I found to be more common D-idiomatic.