2.10 — Introduction to the preprocessor

When you compile your project, you might expect that the compiler compiles each code file exactly as you’ve written it. This actually isn’t the case.

Instead, prior to compilation, each code (.cpp) file goes through a preprocessing phase. In this phase, a program called the preprocessor makes various changes to the text of the code file. The preprocessor does not actually modify the original code files in any way -- rather, all changes made by the preprocessor happen either temporarily in-memory or using temporary files.

Most of what the preprocessor does is fairly uninteresting. For example, it strips out comments, and ensures each code file ends in a newline. However, the preprocessor does have one very important role: it is what processes #include directives (which we’ll discuss more in a moment).

When the preprocessor has finished processing a code file, the result is called a translation unit. This translation unit is what is then compiled by the compiler.

Preprocessor directives

When the preprocessor runs, it scans through the code file (from top to bottom), looking for preprocessor directives. Preprocessor directives (often just called directives) are instructions that start with a # symbol and end with a newline (NOT a semicolon). These directives tell the preprocessor to perform certain text manipulation tasks. Note that the preprocessor does not understand C++ syntax -- instead, the directives have their own syntax (which in some cases resembles C++ syntax, and in other cases, not so much).

#Include

You’ve already seen the #include directive in action (generally to #include <iostream>). When you #include a file, the preprocessor replaces the #include directive with the contents of the included file. The included contents are then preprocessed (which may result in additional #includes being preprocessed recursively), then the rest of the file is preprocessed.

Consider the following program:

#include <iostream>

int main()
{
    std::cout << "Hello, world!\n";
    return 0;
}

When the preprocessor runs on this program, the preprocessor will replace #include <iostream> with the contents of the file named “iostream” and then preprocess the included content and the rest of the file.

Since #include is almost exclusively used to include header files, we’ll discuss #include in more detail in the next lesson (when we discuss header files).

Macro defines

The #define directive can be used to create a macro. In C++, a macro is a rule that defines how input text is converted into replacement output text.

There are two basic types of macros: object-like macros, and function-like macros.

Function-like macros act like functions, and serve a similar purpose. Their use is generally considered unsafe, and almost anything they can do can be done by a normal function.

Object-like macros can be defined in one of two ways:

#define IDENTIFIER
#define IDENTIFIER substitution_text

The top definition has no substitution text, whereas the bottom one does. Because these are preprocessor directives (not statements), note that neither form ends with a semicolon.

The identifier for a macro uses the same naming rules as normal identifiers: they can use letters, numbers, and underscores, cannot start with a number, and should not start with an underscore. By convention, macro names are typically all upper-case, separated by underscores.

Object-like macros with substitution text

When the preprocessor encounters this directive, an association is made between the macro identifier and substitution_text. All further occurrences of the macro identifier (outside of use in other preprocessor commands) are replaced by the substitution_text.

Consider the following program:

#include <iostream>

#define MY_NAME "Alex"

int main()
{
    std::cout << "My name is: " << MY_NAME << '\n';

    return 0;
}

The preprocessor converts the above into the following:

// The contents of iostream are inserted here

int main()
{
    std::cout << "My name is: " << "Alex" << '\n';

    return 0;
}

Which, when run, prints the output My name is: Alex.

Object-like macros with substitution text were used (in C) as a way to assign names to literals. This is no longer necessary, as better methods are available in C++ (see 7.10 -- Sharing global constants across multiple files (using inline variables)). Object-like macros with substitution text are now mostly
seen in legacy code, and we recommend avoiding them whenever possible.

Object-like macros without substitution text

Object-like macros can also be defined without substitution text.

For example:

#define USE_YEN

Macros of this form work like you might expect: most further occurrences of the identifier is removed and replaced by nothing!

This might seem pretty useless, and it is useless for doing text substitution. However, that’s not what this form of the directive is generally used for. We’ll discuss the uses of this form in just a moment.

Unlike object-like macros with substitution text, macros of this form are generally considered acceptable to use.

Conditional compilation

The conditional compilation preprocessor directives allow you to specify under what conditions something will or won’t compile. There are quite a few different conditional compilation directives, but we’ll only cover a few that are used the most often: #ifdef, #ifndef, and #endif.

The #ifdef preprocessor directive allows the preprocessor to check whether an identifier has been previously defined via #define. If so, the code between the #ifdef and matching #endif is compiled. If not, the code is ignored.

Consider the following program:

#include <iostream>

#define PRINT_JOE

int main()
{
#ifdef PRINT_JOE
    std::cout << "Joe\n"; // will be compiled since PRINT_JOE is defined
#endif

#ifdef PRINT_BOB
    std::cout << "Bob\n"; // will be excluded since PRINT_BOB is not defined
#endif

    return 0;
}

Because PRINT_JOE has been #defined, the line std::cout << "Joe\n" will be compiled. Because PRINT_BOB has not been #defined, the line std::cout << "Bob\n" will be ignored.

#ifndef is the opposite of #ifdef, in that it allows you to check whether an identifier has NOT been #defined yet.

#include <iostream>

int main()
{
#ifndef PRINT_BOB
    std::cout << "Bob\n";
#endif

    return 0;
}

This program prints “Bob”, because PRINT_BOB was never #defined.

In place of #ifdef PRINT_BOB and #ifndef PRINT_BOB, you’ll also see #if defined(PRINT_BOB) and #if !defined(PRINT_BOB). These do the same, but use a slightly more C++-style syntax.

You can see a practical use of this feature in lesson 0.13 -- What language standard is my compiler using?.

#if 0

One more common use of conditional compilation involves using #if 0 to exclude a block of code from being compiled (as if it were inside a comment block):

#include <iostream>

int main()
{
    std::cout << "Joe\n";

#if 0 // Don't compile anything starting here
    std::cout << "Bob\n";
    std::cout << "Steve\n";
#endif // until this point

    return 0;
}

The above code only prints “Joe”, because “Bob” and “Steve” are excluded from compilation by the #if 0 preprocessor directive.

This provides a convenient way to “comment out” code that contains multi-line comments (which can’t be commented out using another multi-line comment due to multi-line comments being non-nestable):

#include <iostream>

int main()
{
    std::cout << "Joe\n";

#if 0 // Don't compile anything starting here
    std::cout << "Bob\n";
    /* Some
     * multi-line
     * comment here
     */
    std::cout << "Steve\n";
#endif // until this point

    return 0;
}

To temporarily re-enable code that has been wrapped in an #if 0, you can change the #if 0 to #if 1:

#include <iostream>

int main()
{
    std::cout << "Joe\n";

#if 1 // always true, so the following code will be compiled
    std::cout << "Bob\n";
    /* Some
     * multi-line
     * comment here
     */
    std::cout << "Steve\n";
#endif

    return 0;
}

Macro substitution within other preprocessor commands

Now you might be wondering, given the following code:

#define PRINT_JOE

int main()
{
#ifdef PRINT_JOE
    std::cout << "Joe\n"; // will be compiled since PRINT_JOE is defined
#endif

    return 0;
}

Since we defined PRINT_JOE to be nothing, how come the preprocessor didn’t replace PRINT_JOE in #ifdef PRINT_JOE with nothing and exclude the output statement from compilation?

In most cases, macro substitution does not occur when a macro identifier is used within another preprocessor command.

As another example:

#define FOO 9 // Here's a macro substitution

#ifdef FOO // This FOO does not get replaced with 9 because it’s part of another preprocessor directive
    std::cout << FOO << '\n'; // This FOO gets replaced with 9 because it's part of the normal code
#endif

The scope of #defines

Directives are resolved before compilation, from top to bottom on a file-by-file basis.

Consider the following program:

#include <iostream>

void foo()
{
#define MY_NAME "Alex"
}

int main()
{
	std::cout << "My name is: " << MY_NAME << '\n';

	return 0;
}

Even though it looks like #define MY_NAME “Alex” is defined inside function foo, the preprocessor doesn’t understand C++ concepts like functions. Therefore, this program behaves identically to one where #define MY_NAME “Alex” was defined either before or immediately after function foo. To avoid confusion, you’ll generally want to #define identifiers outside of functions.

Because an #include directive replaces the #include directive with the content of the included file, and #include can copy directives from the included file into the current file. These directives will then be processed in order.

For example, the following also behaves identically to the prior examples:

Alex.h:

#define MY_NAME "Alex"

main.cpp:

#include "Alex.h" // copies #define MY_NAME from Alex.h here
#include <iostream>

int main()
{
	std::cout << "My name is: " << MY_NAME << '\n'; // preprocessor replaces MY_NAME with "Alex"

	return 0;
}

Once the preprocessor has finished, all defined identifiers from that file are discarded. This means that directives are only valid from the point of definition to the end of the file in which they are defined. Directives defined in one file do not have any impact on other files (unless they are #included into another file). For example:

function.cpp:

#include <iostream>

void doSomething()
{
#ifdef PRINT
    std::cout << "Printing!\n";
#endif
#ifndef PRINT
    std::cout << "Not printing!\n";
#endif
}

main.cpp:

void doSomething(); // forward declaration for function doSomething()

#define PRINT

int main()
{
    doSomething();

    return 0;
}

The above program will print:

Not printing!

Even though PRINT was defined in main.cpp, that doesn’t have any impact on any of the code in function.cpp (PRINT is only #defined from the point of definition to the end of main.cpp). This will be of consequence when we discuss header guards in a future lesson.