custom-enums.md

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Custom Enums (A | B)

There's two different types of enums - enum and unions.

TypeScript enums

A TypeScript enum is essentially just an object where each key has an incrementing integer value, so Nitrogen will just generate a C++ enum natively, and bridges to JS using simple integers:

enum Gender {
  MALE,
  FEMALE
}
interface Person extends HybridObject {
  getGender(): Gender
}

This is efficient because MALE is the number 0, FEMALE is the number 1, and all other values are invalid.

TypeScript union

A TypeScript union is essentially just a string, which is only "typed" via TypeScript.

type Gender = 'male' | 'female'
interface Person extends HybridObject {
  getGender(): Gender
}

Nitrogen statically generates hashes for the strings "male" and "female" at compile-time, allowing for very efficient conversions between JS strings and native enums.