boost::describe: How do I get the unadorned enum's name?

Question

Boost describe lets you describe enums and inspect those descriptions. I see how to get an enum's members, but is there a way to get the name of the enumeration itself?

class Outer {

...

enum class MyEnum {
    FirstItem = 88,
    SecondItem = 99,
    };

...

BOOST_DESCRIBE_NESTED_ENUM(MyEnum, FirstItem, SecondItem)
}; // Outer

I'd like to get the unadorned enumeration name "MyEnum" from boost::describe, since typeid(MyEnum).name returns the mangled snigglefritzMyEnumSnigglefritz.

Same for the non-nested version.

Answer 1

I don't think describe stores the name of the type described (surprisingly?). The same goes for classes and unions, judging from the examples.

Instead you can use Boost Core:

std::cout << boost::core::demangle(typeid(Outer::MyEnum).name()) << "\n";

Or Boost TypeIndex:

std::cout << boost::typeindex::type_id<Outer::MyEnum>().pretty_name() << "\n";

E.g.

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#include <boost/core/demangle.hpp>
#include <boost/type_index.hpp>
#include <boost/describe.hpp>
#include <iostream>

struct Outer {
    enum class MyEnum {
        FirstItem  = 88,
        SecondItem = 99,
    };

    BOOST_DESCRIBE_NESTED_ENUM(MyEnum, FirstItem, SecondItem)
}; // Outer

constexpr auto unqualified(std::string_view sv) { return sv.substr(sv.find_last_of(":") + 1); }

int main() {
    auto core = boost::core::demangle(typeid(Outer::MyEnum).name());
    auto tidx = boost::typeindex::type_id<Outer::MyEnum>().pretty_name();
    std::cout << core << "\n";
    std::cout << tidx << "\n";
    std::cout << unqualified(core) << "\n";
    std::cout << unqualified(tidx) << "\n";

    for (auto e : {Outer::MyEnum::FirstItem, Outer::MyEnum::SecondItem})
        std::cout << static_cast<int>(e) << " -> " << boost::describe::enum_to_string(e, "unknown") << "\n";
}

Printing

Outer::MyEnum
Outer::MyEnum
MyEnum
MyEnum
88 -> FirstItem
99 -> SecondItem