When Are C Macros Beneficial for Debugging?

When are C Macros Beneficial?

Despite the general avoidance of C preprocessor macros in the C community due to their potential drawbacks, macros do have their niche use cases where they offer advantages over alternative approaches.

One particularly valuable use case for macros is creating wrappers for debug functions. Macros can automatically pass parameters such as the source file (__FILE__), line number (__LINE__), and other relevant information to the debug function. For example:

This macro can be used to easily output debug information:

However, it's worth noting that with the introduction of std::source_location in C 20, it is possible to implement a similar functionality using normal functions or templates without the need for macros.

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