#ifdef in C#

Question

#if DEBUG
bool bypassCheck=TRUE_OR_FALSE;//i will decide depending on what i am debugging
#else
bool bypassCheck = false; //NEVER bypass it
#endif

Make sure you have the checkbox to define DEBUG checked in your build properties.

I would recommend you using the Conditional Attribute!

Update: 3.5 years later

You can use #if like this (example copied from MSDN):

// preprocessor_if.cs
#define DEBUG
#define VC_V7
using System;
public class MyClass 
{
    static void Main() 
    {
#if (DEBUG && !VC_V7)
        Console.WriteLine("DEBUG is defined");
#elif (!DEBUG && VC_V7)
        Console.WriteLine("VC_V7 is defined");
#elif (DEBUG && VC_V7)
        Console.WriteLine("DEBUG and VC_V7 are defined");
#else
        Console.WriteLine("DEBUG and VC_V7 are not defined");
#endif
    }
}

Only useful for excluding parts of methods.

If you use #if to exclude some method from compilation then you will have to exclude from compilation all pieces of code which call that method as well (sometimes you may load some classes at runtime and you cannot find the caller with "Find all references"). Otherwise there will be errors.

If you use conditional compilation on the other hand you can still leave all pieces of code that call the method. All parameters will still be validated by the compiler. The method just won't be called at runtime. I think that it is way better to hide the method just once and not have to remove all the code that calls it as well. You are not allowed to use the conditional attribute on methods which return value - only on void methods. But I don't think this is a big limitation because if you use #if with a method that returns a value you have to hide all pieces of code that call it too.

Here is an example:

    // calling Class1.ConditionalMethod() will be ignored at runtime 
    // unless the DEBUG constant is defined


    using System.Diagnostics;
    class Class1 
    {
       [Conditional("DEBUG")]
       public static void ConditionalMethod() {
          Console.WriteLine("Executed Class1.ConditionalMethod");
       }
    }

Summary:

I would use #ifdef in C++ but with C#/VB I would use Conditional attribute. This way you hide the method definition without having to hide the pieces of code that call it. The calling code is still compiled and validated by the compiler, the method is not called at runtime though. You may want to use #if to avoid dependencies because with Conditional attribute your code is still compiled.

C# does have a preprocessor. It works just slightly differently than that of C++ and C.

Here is a MSDN links - the section on all preprocessor directives.

I was able to achieve the behavior by adding the <DefineConstants> tag into the csproj's xml.

1. Open the project file with a text editor.
2. Find the first <PropertyGroup> with all of your project property definitions.
3. Add <DefineConstants>SOME_VARIABLE_NAME</DefineConstants> inside this group.
4. Add #if SOME_VARIABLE_NAME to your code to conditionally enable the code.