I've got a pretty complicated macro inside my (unmanaged) C++ code. Is there any way to expand macros in VS debugger? Or maybe there is another way to debug macros there?
F.e. I'd like to place a breakpoint inside it.
(Yes, I know macros are bad.)
9 Answers
I heard all possible negative answers on the topic:
- macros can only be expanded not evaluated
- preprocessor should parse also include files
- nested macros can be over-complicated
- conditional preprocessing can be tricky
- macros are evil just avoid them
- etc etc....
They are all true, but IMO they collide with the reality of everydays programming.
In fact, working on old C project, where macros were mostly simply used as functions, this became of crucial importance for me. Generating all preprocessed files with /P works, but is overkilling and time consuming. I just needed a tool that expands a simple macro defined a few lines above or at maximum in other file.
How to do that?
- On Linux simply use GDB and his expand macros capabilities
- On windows I use https://www.jetbrains.com/resharper-cpp/ integrated into Visual Studio
So, Yes, in a practical sense, it is possible.
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