C++ How can I code a generic struct to hold any enum

I'm pretty new to C++ so apologies in advance,

Let's say I have 2 enum's:

enum Side
{
    Left,
    Right
};

enum Direct
{
    Forward,
    Backward
};

I want an object where I can save the enum value and then retrieve it agnostic of which actual enum was used,

e.g:

Direct direction = Direct::Left;
myStruct.genericEnum = direction;
Side side = myStruct.generic开发者_开发技巧Enum;

How could this be done? should I be using generic types? (not sure I understand them well enough to use them), do I need to save the enum as an int in myStruct and then explicitly cast when reading the value back? (this seems messy to me) Thanks in advance

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What you're looking for is a union:

struct MyStruct {
  union { Side side; Direct direct; } genericEnum;
};

Direct direction = Direct::Left;
myStruct.genericEnum.direct = direction;
Side side = myStruct.genericEnum.side;

but I have to ask: are you really sure that this is a sensible thing to be doing? It seems like asking for trouble.

(Generics as such aren't what you're looking for: they're purely a compile-time construct, and won't help with storing a value of one type and interpreting it as another.)

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This couldn't be done with "Generic types" because C++ does not have such types.

All enumerations are effectively integers. The "Generic Enum" you're looking for is an integer.

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You are mixing direction and side in some strange way. Should structure hold both of them? Look at union it can hold one of the types, but not mix it.