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A macro is preprocessor definition that is processed prior to compilation. All occurances of a macro within your C++ source code are replaced with the macro definition, much like an automated search-and-replace-all operation. If the macro's definition is a function with one or more arguments, then the function is inline expanded within your code, replacing the defined arguments with the arguments that were passed to the macro. However, macro functions are not type safe and cannot be debugged because they only exist in your source code; the compiler only sees the intermediate code emitted by the preprocessor, at which point all macro definitions will no longer exist. To address this problem, C++ also supports the concept of template functions, which not only eliminates any unwanted inline expansion (resulting in smaller code), but also ensures that all calls to the function are type safe and can be debugged in the normal way. That said, macro functions, when used appropriately, can greatly simplify your code and can achieve things that would be difficult if not impossible to achieve with C++ alone. The ability to use code fragments via a macro is one such possibility. However, when combined with preprocessor directives such as #ifdef DEBUG, macros can also be used to provide useful and powerful debugging routines that only exist in debug code, compiling to no code in release builds. This cannot be achieved with C++ alone.

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11y ago

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