how to separate debug and release mode code

Question

During debug mode or while I am doing testing, I need to print lots of various information, so i use this method:

#ifdef TESTING
// code with lots of debugging info
#else
// clean code only
#endif // TESTING`

Is this a good method, or is there any other simple and elegant method ?

But this way, I am repeating the same code in two places and if anything is to be changed later on in the code, I have to do it in both places, which is time consuming and error prone.

Thanks.

I am using MS Visual Studio.

Answer 1

You could use a macro to print debug information and then in the release build, define that macro as empty.

e.g.,

#ifdef _DEBUG
#define DEBUG_PRINT(x) printf(x);
#else
#define DEBUG_PRINT(x)
#endif

Using this method, you can also add more information like

__LINE__ 
__FILE__

to the debug information automatically.