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  69. <h2 class="chapter">4 Conditionals</h2>
  70. <a name="index-conditionals"></a>
  71. <p>A <em>conditional</em> is a directive that instructs the preprocessor to
  72. select whether or not to include a chunk of code in the final token
  73. stream passed to the compiler. Preprocessor conditionals can test
  74. arithmetic expressions, or whether a name is defined as a macro, or both
  75. simultaneously using the special <code>defined</code> operator.
  76. </p>
  77. <p>A conditional in the C preprocessor resembles in some ways an <code>if</code>
  78. statement in C, but it is important to understand the difference between
  79. them. The condition in an <code>if</code> statement is tested during the
  80. execution of your program. Its purpose is to allow your program to
  81. behave differently from run to run, depending on the data it is
  82. operating on. The condition in a preprocessing conditional directive is
  83. tested when your program is compiled. Its purpose is to allow different
  84. code to be included in the program depending on the situation at the
  85. time of compilation.
  86. </p>
  87. <p>However, the distinction is becoming less clear. Modern compilers often
  88. do test <code>if</code> statements when a program is compiled, if their
  89. conditions are known not to vary at run time, and eliminate code which
  90. can never be executed. If you can count on your compiler to do this,
  91. you may find that your program is more readable if you use <code>if</code>
  92. statements with constant conditions (perhaps determined by macros). Of
  93. course, you can only use this to exclude code, not type definitions or
  94. other preprocessing directives, and you can only do it if the code
  95. remains syntactically valid when it is not to be used.
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