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You'll sometimes be faced with the need for variables that have a limited set of possible values that can be usally referred to by name. For example, the state variable like IDLE,READY,BUZY etx of state machine can only have the all the states defined and Refraining or displaying these states using the state name will be more comfortable. There's a specific facility, called an enumeration in SystemVerilog . Enumerated data types assign a symbolic name to each legal value taken by the data type. Let's create an example using one of the ideas I just mentioned-a state machine .
You can define this as follows:
enum {IDLE,READY,BUZY} states;
This declares an enumerated data type called states, and variables of this type can only have values from the set that appears between the braces, IDLE,READY and BUZY. If you try to set a variable of type states to a value that isn't one of the values specified, it will cause an error. Enumerated data type are strongly typed.
One more advantage of enumerated datatypes is that if you don't initialize then , each one would have a unique value. By defaule they are int types. In the previous examples, IDLE is 0, READY is 1 and BUZY is 2. These values can be printed as values or strings.
The values can be set for some of the names and not set for other names. A name without a value is automatically assigned an increment of the value of the previous name. The value of first name by default is 0.
// c is automatically assigned the increment-value of 8
enum {a=3, b=7, c} alphabet;
// Syntax error: c and d are both assigned 8
enum {a=0, b=7, c, d=8} alphabet;
// a=0, b=7, c=8
enum {a, b=7, c} alphabet;
Enumarated Methods:
SystemVerilog includes a set of specialized methods to enable iterating over the values of enumerated.
The first() method returns the value of the first member of the enumeration.
The last() method returns the value of the last member of the enumeration.
The next() method returns the Nth next enumeration value (default is the next one) starting from the current value of the given variable.
The prev() method returns the Nth previous enumeration value (default is the previous one) starting from the current value of the given variable.
The name() method returns the string representation of the given enumeration value. If the given value is not a member of the enumeration, the name() method returns the empty string.
EXAMPLE :
ENUM methods
module enum_method;
typedef enum {red,blue,green} colour;
colour c;
initial
begin
c = c.first();
$display(" %s ",c.name);
c = c.next();
$display(" %s ",c.name);
c = c.last();
$display(" %s ",c.name);
c = c.prev();
$display(" %s ",c.name);
end
endmodule
RESULTS :
red
blue
green
blue
Enum Numerical Expressions
// c is automatically assigned the increment-value of 8
enum {a=3, b=7, c} alphabet;
// Syntax error: c and d are both assigned 8
enum {a=0, b=7, c, d=8} alphabet;
// a=0, b=7, c=8
enum {a, b=7, c} alphabet;
Enumarated Methods:
SystemVerilog includes a set of specialized methods to enable iterating over the values of enumerated.
The first() method returns the value of the first member of the enumeration.
The last() method returns the value of the last member of the enumeration.
The next() method returns the Nth next enumeration value (default is the next one) starting from the current value of the given variable.
The prev() method returns the Nth previous enumeration value (default is the previous one) starting from the current value of the given variable.
The name() method returns the string representation of the given enumeration value. If the given value is not a member of the enumeration, the name() method returns the empty string.
EXAMPLE :
ENUM methods
module enum_method;
typedef enum {red,blue,green} colour;
colour c;
initial
begin
c = c.first();
$display(" %s ",c.name);
c = c.next();
$display(" %s ",c.name);
c = c.last();
$display(" %s ",c.name);
c = c.prev();
$display(" %s ",c.name);
end
endmodule
RESULTS :
red
blue
green
blue
Enum Numerical Expressions
Elements of enumerated type variables can be used in numerical expressions. The value used in the expression is the numerical value associated with the enumerated value.
An enum variable or identifier used as part of an expression is automatically cast to the base type of the enum declaration (either explicitly or using int as the default). A cast shall be required for an expression that is assigned to an enum variable where the type of the expression is not equivalent to the enumeration type of the variable.
EXAMPLE:
module enum_method;
typedef enum {red,blue,green} colour;
colour c,d;
int i;
initial
begin
$display("%s",c.name());
d = c;
$display("%s",d.name());
d = colour'(c + 1); // use casting
$display("%s",d.name());
i = d; // automatic casting
$display("%0d",i);
c = colour'(i);
$display("%s",c.name());
end
endmodule
An enum variable or identifier used as part of an expression is automatically cast to the base type of the enum declaration (either explicitly or using int as the default). A cast shall be required for an expression that is assigned to an enum variable where the type of the expression is not equivalent to the enumeration type of the variable.
EXAMPLE:
module enum_method;
typedef enum {red,blue,green} colour;
colour c,d;
int i;
initial
begin
$display("%s",c.name());
d = c;
$display("%s",d.name());
d = colour'(c + 1); // use casting
$display("%s",d.name());
i = d; // automatic casting
$display("%0d",i);
c = colour'(i);
$display("%s",c.name());
end
endmodule
RESULT
red
red
blue
1
blue
TIP: If you want to use X or Z as enum values, then define it using 4-state data type explicitly.
enum integer {IDLE, XX='x, S1='b01, S2='b10} state, next;
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