How are enums converted to uint?

Question

When using web3, calling a function that returns an enum type converts it to a uint. Initially I assumed that enums are converted incrementally: 0,1,2,3.... However what I received was a hexadecimal. How is it converted, and how do you parse it?

For example:

contract Foo {
   enum Letter {A, B, C}
   function say(uint index) returns (Letter) {
       if(index == 0) return Letter.A;
       if(index == 1) return Letter.B;
       if(index == 2) return Letter.C;
       throw;
   }
}

If you call Foo.say.call(1) you get a hex number (0x3ad324...). How would I check if it was Letter.A or 'Letter.B` that was returned?

Answer 1

Enum values are numbered in the order they're defined, starting at 0. So, Letter.A will be 0, Letter.B will be 1, and so forth. There's currently no means to cast an enum value to its name; that information isn't retained at runtime.

Answer 2

About Enums, being described below:

nums are one way to create a user-defined type in Solidity. They are explicitly convertible to and from all integer types but implicit conversion is not allowed. The explicit conversions check the value ranges at runtime and a failure causes an exception. Enums needs at least one member.

Enum values are numbered in the order they're defined, starting at 0. If you want get value of enum, calling uint(enum_variable).

pragma solidity ^0.4.4;

contract SimpleEnum {

  enum VirtualTrade {DEFAULT,ONE,TWO}
  VirtualTrade vt;

    function SimpleEnum(){
        vt = VirtualTrade.DEFAULT;
    }

  function setValues(uint _value) {
      require(uint(VirtualTrade.TWO) >= _value);
      vt = VirtualTrade(_value);
  }

  function getValue() constant returns (uint){
      return uint(vt);
  }

}

Hope it helps~