C/C Preprocessor

Macros

• The following C macro example is what GCC calls a 'statement expression'. It returns the value of the last expression in a statement block.

#define FOO(x) ({ \
  int foo = 1024;  \
  foo + x;         \
})

• This expression will not expand out with the '{' '}' braces.

#define BAR(x) {  \
  bar = FOO(x);    \
}

• For that you need:

#define BAT(x) do { \
  bat = FOO(x);      \
} while(0)

Function definitions

• If you want to redefine function foo(bar) to foo_internal(bar) the following won't work:

#define foo (bar) foo_internal (bar)

• You must use not have a space between foo and its parameter list:

#define foo(bar) foo_internal (bar)

• This applies for normal macro function expansions in general. When invoking:

BAT(z);

with the following macro definition:

#define BAT (x) do { \
  bat = FOO(x);      \
} while(0)

It will expand as:

(x) { bat = FOO(x); }

Which is WRONG. You need:

#define BAT(x) do { \
  bat = FOO(x);      \
} while(0)

So that it expands as:

{ bat = FOO(z); }