A marco for creating enums with values which can be logged (inspired by http://rentzsch.tumblr.com/post/37512716957/enum-nsstring and long train journey).

gistfile1.m

#define EMKStringableEnum(ENUM_NAME, ENUM_VALUES...) \
\
typedef enum { \
    ENUM_VALUES \
} ENUM_NAME; \
\
\
\
static NSString * ENUM_NAME##ToString(int enumValue) { \
    static NSString *enumDescription = @"" #ENUM_VALUES;  \
    /*parse the enum values into a dict*/\
    static NSDictionary *enumsByValue = nil; \
    if (enumsByValue == nil) { \
        NSMutableDictionary *mutableEnumsByValue = [NSMutableDictionary dictionary]; \
        NSArray *enumPairs = [enumDescription componentsSeparatedByString:@","]; \
        \
        NSInteger lastValue = 0-1; /*set to 1 before the default value for the first enum*/ \
        for (NSString *enumPair in enumPairs) { \
            NSArray *labelAndValue = [enumPair componentsSeparatedByString:@"="]; \
            NSString *label = [[labelAndValue objectAtIndex:0] stringByTrimmingCharactersInSet:[NSCharacterSet whitespaceCharacterSet]]; \
            BOOL hasExplictValue = [labelAndValue count] > 1; \
            NSInteger value = (hasExplictValue) ? [[labelAndValue objectAtIndex:1] integerValue] : lastValue + 1; \
            \
            [mutableEnumsByValue setObject:label forKey:[NSNumber numberWithInteger:value]]; \
            \
            lastValue = value; \
        } \
        \
        enumsByValue = [mutableEnumsByValue copy]; \
    } \
    \
    NSString *label = [enumsByValue objectForKey:[NSNumber numberWithInteger:enumValue]]; \
    if (label != nil) return label; \
    \
    return [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%i not defined as a %s value", enumValue, #ENUM_NAME]; \
}



EMKStringableEnum(EMKArfnoid,
                  EMKArfValue1 = 2,
                  EMKArfValue2,
                  EMKArfValue3 = 400);



int main(int argc, const char * argv[]) {

    @autoreleasepool {
        
        // insert code here...
        EMKArfnoid arf = EMKArfValue3;
        NSLog(@"%@", EMKArfnoidToString(arf)); //This will log "EMKArfValue3"
    }
    return 0;
}

id make part of the long macro into a function (it can be inlined if that matters)

so that e.g. EMKArfnoidToString only calls EMKEnumValueToString(allArfnoidEnumValues, enumValue);