Preprocessor
A preprocessor is a source-processing component or stage that transforms input, often handling directives or expansions, before primary processing.
Modern C, Third Edition
The C preprocessor is a translation phase that processes preprocessing directives and expands macros before compilation.
- How it is used
- Provides textual substitution for reusable expressions, declarations, definitions, and statement-like code, including type-generic programming.
- How deep it goes
- Explains invocation parsing, recursive argument expansion, parameter substitution, and recursion prevention, but stops short of broader preprocessing directives.
- Examples
- Uses BYTECOPY and MINSIZE expansions, gray-value color macros, generated color declarations, and a mutex-protected statement macro.
- What you can do after
- Build type-generic expressions, declarations, definitions, and statement-like macros while tracking textual expansion and argument evaluation.
100 C++ Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
A preprocessor is a source-processing component that transforms code, including performing macro substitution, before compilation.
- How it is used
- Warns against depending on macros when writing or maintaining C++ code.
- How deep it goes
- Explains textual substitution through concrete failures and contrasts macros with typed constants, templates, loops, and bool.
- Examples
- Uses PI, SQUARE, FOR, TRUE, and FALSE macros alongside corrected C++ equivalents.
- What you can do after
- Evaluate macro hazards and replace simple macros with typed constants, template functions, explicit loops, and bool values.
Read how 100 C++ Mistakes and How to Avoid Them explains preprocessor →
Modern C
- How it is used
- Explains how C transforms source text before primary compilation, especially when expanding function-like macros.
- How deep it goes
- Traces argument parsing, recursive expansion, substitution, and recursion prevention, but stops short of broader preprocessing stages.
- Examples
- Uses MINSIZE, BYTECOPY, memcpy, and string_literal to demonstrate expansion, substitution, and deliberate macro avoidance.
- What you can do after
- Evaluate function-like macro expansion by tracing arguments, recursive substitutions, balanced delimiters, and resulting source text.
Related concepts
- macroused by · A macro is a named construct that expands or transforms source code, commands, or templates before or during execution.
- CSS preprocessorincludes · A CSS preprocessor is a source-to-source tool that transforms an extended stylesheet language into standard CSS.
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