123456789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930313233343536373839404142434445464748495051525354555657585960616263646566676869707172737475767778798081828384858687888990919293949596979899100101102103104105106107108109110111112113114115116117118119120121122123124125126127128129130131132133134135136137138139140141142143144145146147148149 |
- <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">
- <html>
- <!-- Copyright (C) 1987-2017 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
- Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
- under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or
- any later version published by the Free Software Foundation. A copy of
- the license is included in the
- section entitled "GNU Free Documentation License".
- This manual contains no Invariant Sections. The Front-Cover Texts are
- (a) (see below), and the Back-Cover Texts are (b) (see below).
- (a) The FSF's Front-Cover Text is:
- A GNU Manual
- (b) The FSF's Back-Cover Text is:
- You have freedom to copy and modify this GNU Manual, like GNU
- software. Copies published by the Free Software Foundation raise
- funds for GNU development. -->
- <!-- Created by GNU Texinfo 5.2, http://www.gnu.org/software/texinfo/ -->
- <head>
- <title>The C Preprocessor: Swallowing the Semicolon</title>
- <meta name="description" content="The C Preprocessor: Swallowing the Semicolon">
- <meta name="keywords" content="The C Preprocessor: Swallowing the Semicolon">
- <meta name="resource-type" content="document">
- <meta name="distribution" content="global">
- <meta name="Generator" content="makeinfo">
- <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
- <link href="index.html#Top" rel="start" title="Top">
- <link href="Index-of-Directives.html#Index-of-Directives" rel="index" title="Index of Directives">
- <link href="index.html#SEC_Contents" rel="contents" title="Table of Contents">
- <link href="Macro-Pitfalls.html#Macro-Pitfalls" rel="up" title="Macro Pitfalls">
- <link href="Duplication-of-Side-Effects.html#Duplication-of-Side-Effects" rel="next" title="Duplication of Side Effects">
- <link href="Operator-Precedence-Problems.html#Operator-Precedence-Problems" rel="prev" title="Operator Precedence Problems">
- <style type="text/css">
- <!--
- a.summary-letter {text-decoration: none}
- blockquote.smallquotation {font-size: smaller}
- div.display {margin-left: 3.2em}
- div.example {margin-left: 3.2em}
- div.indentedblock {margin-left: 3.2em}
- div.lisp {margin-left: 3.2em}
- div.smalldisplay {margin-left: 3.2em}
- div.smallexample {margin-left: 3.2em}
- div.smallindentedblock {margin-left: 3.2em; font-size: smaller}
- div.smalllisp {margin-left: 3.2em}
- kbd {font-style:oblique}
- pre.display {font-family: inherit}
- pre.format {font-family: inherit}
- pre.menu-comment {font-family: serif}
- pre.menu-preformatted {font-family: serif}
- pre.smalldisplay {font-family: inherit; font-size: smaller}
- pre.smallexample {font-size: smaller}
- pre.smallformat {font-family: inherit; font-size: smaller}
- pre.smalllisp {font-size: smaller}
- span.nocodebreak {white-space:nowrap}
- span.nolinebreak {white-space:nowrap}
- span.roman {font-family:serif; font-weight:normal}
- span.sansserif {font-family:sans-serif; font-weight:normal}
- ul.no-bullet {list-style: none}
- -->
- </style>
- </head>
- <body lang="en" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000" link="#0000FF" vlink="#800080" alink="#FF0000">
- <a name="Swallowing-the-Semicolon"></a>
- <div class="header">
- <p>
- Next: <a href="Duplication-of-Side-Effects.html#Duplication-of-Side-Effects" accesskey="n" rel="next">Duplication of Side Effects</a>, Previous: <a href="Operator-Precedence-Problems.html#Operator-Precedence-Problems" accesskey="p" rel="prev">Operator Precedence Problems</a>, Up: <a href="Macro-Pitfalls.html#Macro-Pitfalls" accesskey="u" rel="up">Macro Pitfalls</a> [<a href="index.html#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="Index-of-Directives.html#Index-of-Directives" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p>
- </div>
- <hr>
- <a name="Swallowing-the-Semicolon-1"></a>
- <h4 class="subsection">3.10.3 Swallowing the Semicolon</h4>
- <a name="index-semicolons-_0028after-macro-calls_0029"></a>
- <p>Often it is desirable to define a macro that expands into a compound
- statement. Consider, for example, the following macro, that advances a
- pointer (the argument <code>p</code> says where to find it) across whitespace
- characters:
- </p>
- <div class="smallexample">
- <pre class="smallexample">#define SKIP_SPACES(p, limit) \
- { char *lim = (limit); \
- while (p < lim) { \
- if (*p++ != ' ') { \
- p--; break; }}}
- </pre></div>
- <p>Here backslash-newline is used to split the macro definition, which must
- be a single logical line, so that it resembles the way such code would
- be laid out if not part of a macro definition.
- </p>
- <p>A call to this macro might be <code>SKIP_SPACES (p, lim)</code>. Strictly
- speaking, the call expands to a compound statement, which is a complete
- statement with no need for a semicolon to end it. However, since it
- looks like a function call, it minimizes confusion if you can use it
- like a function call, writing a semicolon afterward, as in
- <code>SKIP_SPACES (p, lim);</code>
- </p>
- <p>This can cause trouble before <code>else</code> statements, because the
- semicolon is actually a null statement. Suppose you write
- </p>
- <div class="smallexample">
- <pre class="smallexample">if (*p != 0)
- SKIP_SPACES (p, lim);
- else …
- </pre></div>
- <p>The presence of two statements—the compound statement and a null
- statement—in between the <code>if</code> condition and the <code>else</code>
- makes invalid C code.
- </p>
- <p>The definition of the macro <code>SKIP_SPACES</code> can be altered to solve
- this problem, using a <code>do … while</code> statement. Here is how:
- </p>
- <div class="smallexample">
- <pre class="smallexample">#define SKIP_SPACES(p, limit) \
- do { char *lim = (limit); \
- while (p < lim) { \
- if (*p++ != ' ') { \
- p--; break; }}} \
- while (0)
- </pre></div>
- <p>Now <code>SKIP_SPACES (p, lim);</code> expands into
- </p>
- <div class="smallexample">
- <pre class="smallexample">do {…} while (0);
- </pre></div>
- <p>which is one statement. The loop executes exactly once; most compilers
- generate no extra code for it.
- </p>
- <hr>
- <div class="header">
- <p>
- Next: <a href="Duplication-of-Side-Effects.html#Duplication-of-Side-Effects" accesskey="n" rel="next">Duplication of Side Effects</a>, Previous: <a href="Operator-Precedence-Problems.html#Operator-Precedence-Problems" accesskey="p" rel="prev">Operator Precedence Problems</a>, Up: <a href="Macro-Pitfalls.html#Macro-Pitfalls" accesskey="u" rel="up">Macro Pitfalls</a> [<a href="index.html#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="Index-of-Directives.html#Index-of-Directives" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p>
- </div>
- </body>
- </html>
|