Re: preceding (void) as a do-nothing

From:
Alex Shulgin <alex.shulgin@gmail.com>
Newsgroups:
comp.lang.c++.moderated
Date:
Wed, 10 Dec 2008 09:19:01 CST
Message-ID:
<10d227ca-bad4-4236-a5b3-f536f0c07c81@r37g2000prr.googlegroups.com>
On Dec 10, 4:47 am, mtall....@gmail.com wrote:

Hello,

Is the code below valid C++ ? While it compiles under gcc 4.3, I'm
not sure whether "(void)(arg1, arg2)" is a portable way to get the
functionality of "do nothing and ignore all arguments".

#if defined(DO_DEBUG)
  #define debug_print do_print
#else
  #define debug_print (void)
#endif

inline void do_print(int a, int b)
  {
  std::cout << a << b << std::endl;
  }

int main(int argc, char** argv)
  {
  debug_print(1,2);
  return 0;
  }


Ah, very keen... But it doesn't really ignores the 'arguments'. :)

When compiled w/o DO_DEBUG you have a coma-separated expression `
(1,2)' cast to type `void':

(void)(1,2);

If expression happen to have any side-effects they are still executed,
because 'arguments' are calcuated first and then the result is
ignored:

debug_print(printf("abc\n"), printf("def\n"));

abc
def

However, this ought to be suitable for debugging/logging purposes
because you don't want the side effects (other than actual logging) in
the 'debug mode'. :)

--
Cheers,
Alex

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