I wrote some code to perform both compile-time and runtime translation between enums and their corresponding string values. The only direction that isn't possible is string->enum at compile time. Is there any interest in this? You can use it as follows: typedef enum { ValueA1, ValueA2 } EnumA; typedef enum { ValueB1, ValueB2 } EnumB; BEGIN_ENUM_MAP_DECLS() BEGIN_ENUM_MAP(EnumA, a_map) ENUM_MAP(ValueA1) //maps ValueA1 to the string "ValueA1", provides both compile-time and run-time lookups. ENUM_MAP_NAME(ValueA2, "custom name") //maps ValueA2 to the string "custom name", provides both compile-time and run-time lookups END_ENUM_MAP() BEGIN_ENUM_MAP(EnumB, b_map) ENUM_MAP(ValueB1) ENUM_MAP(ValueB2) END_ENUM_MAP() END_ENUM_MAP_DECLS() void foo() { //value -> string, compile time BOOST_STATIC_ASSERT(enum_map<EnumA>::value_lookup[ValueA2] == "custom name"); //value -> string, runtime EnumB some_value = get_enum_b_from_external_source(); std::cout << "some_value = " << enum_map<EnumB>::name_lookup[some_value] << std::endl; //prints either 'some_value = ValueB1', or 'some_value = ValueB2' //string -> value, runtime EnumA value = enum_map<EnumA>::name_lookup["custom name"]; BOOST_ASSERT(value == ValueA2); } One particularly useful application of this that I've found is with regards to boost::program_options. You can provide an overload of boost::program_options::validate that uses boost::enable_if with boost::is_enum thus providing automatic support for entry of friendly names corresponding to enumerations on the command line or in a config file. Obviously there's many other easily identifiable uses as well. However, this is a common enough problem that I wonder if anyone else has already attempted something like this, and if so maybe I can look at their code first, or just scrap mine altogether and reuse something existing. If not, I'm sure there is plenty of room for improvement in mine but if it could fit somewhere in boost (perhaps boost/utility) I'd be willing to submit it and make necessary improvements. Unfortunately I don't think it's technically possible to have a simple syntax, even through preprocessor magic, that requires you to only specify the name of each enumerated value once, and end up providing both a definition of the enumeration as well as the mapping from string<->value, but if someone comes up with a way that would obviously be ideal.