What are some tricks I can use with macros? [closed]

Question

In C, it's common to define macros that do some stuff getting the verbatim argument, and at the same time define functions to be able to get the address of it transparently.

// could evaluate at compile time if __builtin_sin gets
// special treatment by the compiler
#define sin(x) __builtin_sin(x)

// parentheses avoid substitution by the macro
double (sin)(double arg) {
    return sin(arg); // uses the macro
}

int main() {
    // uses the macro
    printf("%f\n", sin(3.14));

    // uses the function
    double (*x)(double) = &sin;

    // uses the function
    printf("%f\n", (sin)(3.14));
}

There is also the X Macro idiom which can be useful for DRY and simple code generation :

One defines in a header gen.x a kind of table using a not yet defined macro :

/** 1st arg is type , 2nd is field name , 3rd is initial value , 4th is help */
GENX( int , "y" , 1 , "number of ..." );
GENX( float , "z" , 6.3 , "this value sets ..." );
GENX( std::string , "name" , "myname" , "name of ..." );

Then he can use it in different places defining it for each #include with a usually different definition :

class X
{
public :

     void setDefaults()
     {
#define GENX( type , member , value , help )\
         member = value ;
#include "gen.x"
#undef GENX
     }

     void help( std::ostream & o )
     {
#define GENX( type , member , value , help )\
          o << #member << " : " << help << '\n' ;
#include "gen.x"
#undef GENX
     }

private :

#define GENX( type , member , value , help )\
     type member ;
#include "gen.x"
#undef GENX
}

Coolest macro is: assert, include guards, __FILE__, __LINE__.
Avoid using other macro in your code.

EDIT:
Use macros only when you don't have legal solution w/o them.

SHOW() for debugging:

#define SHOW(X) cout << # X " = " << (X) << endl

---

The double-evaluation to expand the arguments trick: (E.g. Use the actual line number and not "__LINE__".)

    /* Use CONCATENATE_AGAIN to expand the arguments to CONCATENATE */
#define CONCATENATE(      x,y)  CONCATENATE_AGAIN(x,y)
#define CONCATENATE_AGAIN(x,y)  x ## y

---

Static compile-time assertions.
E.g.:

#define CONCATENATE_4(      a,b,c,d)  CONCATENATE_4_AGAIN(a,b,c,d)
#define CONCATENATE_4_AGAIN(a,b,c,d)  a ## b ## c ## d

    /* Creates a typedef that's legal/illegal depending on EXPRESSION.       *
     * Note that IDENTIFIER_TEXT is limited to "[a-zA-Z0-9_]*".              *
     * (This may be replaced by static_assert() in future revisions of C++.) */
#define STATIC_ASSERT( EXPRESSION, IDENTIFIER_TEXT)                     \
  typedef char CONCATENATE_4( static_assert____,      IDENTIFIER_TEXT,  \
                              ____failed_at_line____, __LINE__ )        \
            [ (EXPRESSION) ? 1 : -1 ]

Used via:

typedef  int32_t  int4;

STATIC_ASSERT( sizeof(int4) == 4, sizeof_int4_equal_4 );

---

Initializing an instance of class CodeLocation: (Storing File/Line/Function from the point of invocation -- this can *ONLY* be done with a macro or by directly accessing the __FILE__/__LINE__/etc macros at the source point.)

        /* Note:  Windows may have __FUNCTION__.  C99 defines __func__. */
#define CURRENT_CODE_LOCATION()  \
           CodeLocation( __PRETTY_FUNCTION__, __FILE__, __LINE__ )

---

Subsequently used by MESSAGE/WARN/FAIL macros as a convenient source-location printing mechanism. For example:

#define WARN_IF_NAN(X)                                      \
  do                                                        \
  {                                                         \
    if ( isnan(X) != 0 )                                    \
      WARN( # X " is NaN (Floating Point NOT-A-NUMBER)" );  \
    if ( isinf(X) != 0 )                                    \
      WARN( # X " is INF (Floating Point INFINITY)" );      \
  } while ( false )

---

Assert/Unless macros. You can pass any token, including operators like '==', through a macro. So constructs like:

ASSERT( foo, ==, bar )

Or

UNLESS( foo, >=, 0, value=0; return false; );

Are legal. Assert/Unless macros can automatically add all sorts the nice useful info like CodeLocation, stack traces, or throwing exceptions / coredumping / exiting gracefully.

---

Making errno simplier:

#define ERRNO_FORMAT  "errno= %d (\"%s\")"
#define ERRNO_ARGS    errno, strerror(errno)
#define ERRNO_STREAM  "errno= " << errno << " (\"" << strerror(errno) << "\") "

E.g. printf( "Open failed. " ERRNO_FORMAT, ERRNO_ARGS );

You can have a look at Boost.Preprocessor to find lot's of interesting uses of the preprocessor...