Function call macro in C/C++ [closed]

Question

If a function, say foo(), is called in different ways on varius platforms, is it bad practice to use a macro?

For example:

#ifdef WIN32
#define ffoo(a) foo(0)
#else
#define ffoo(a) foo(a)
#endif

Answer 1

In C++ it is considered bad practice, there you have so many other possibilities like inheritance, overloading etc that it is not really needed.

Answer 2

Creating macros using #define has been known to cause undefined behavior. I would recommend using templates instead of macros.

Simple example from the book "Effective C++":

#define CALL_WITH_MAX(a,b) f((a) > (b) ? (a) : (b))

Produces different behavior when called like this (try it):

CALL_WITH_MAX(++a,b); // a is incremented twice
CALL_WITH_MAX(++a,b+10); // a is incremented once

If you are using C however, you are more limited as you don't have templates or object oriented workarounds.