How do you declare an enum for four compass directions?

• A. typedef enum { NORTH, EAST, SOUTH, WEST } Direction;
• B. enum { NORTH, EAST, SOUTH, WEST } Direction;
• C. typedef enum Direction { NORTH, SOUTH, EAST, WEST } Direction;
• D. typedef enum { UP, DOWN, LEFT, RIGHT } Direction;

Answer: (A)

This checks how to create a named enumeration type in C so you can use a single type name for the values. The form that defines an anonymous enum with the four compass names and then typedefs it to Direction is the clean, conventional way: it creates a type called Direction and the constants NORTH, EAST, SOUTH, and WEST that you can use as values of that type. With this, you can write code like Direction d = NORTH; and pass those values around easily.

The other patterns don’t achieve the same goal. Declaring an anonymous enum without a typedef would create a variable named Direction rather than a reusable type. A version that uses a named enum tag plus a typedef with the same identifier is valid C, but it’s more verbose and can be less clear to readers who expect a straightforward type alias. Using different names like UP, DOWN, LEFT, RIGHT doesn’t define the four compass directions as a single, named enum type; it’s just a different set of identifiers.