Preprocessor Operators

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# operator or stringizing operator is used to convert a Macro parameter to a string literal. It can only be used with the Macros having arguments.

// preprocessor will convert the parameter x to the string literal x
#define PRINT(x) printf(#x "\n")

PRINT(This line will be converted to string by preprocessor);
// Compiler sees
printf("This line will be converted to string by preprocessor""\n");

Compiler concatenate two strings and the final printf() argument will be a string literal with newline character at its end.

Preprocessor will ignore the spaces before or after the macro argument. So below print statement will give us the same result.

PRINT(   This line will be converted to string by preprocessor );

If the parameter of the string literal requires an escape sequence like before a double quote() it will automatically be inserted by the preprocessor.

PRINT(This "line" will be converted to "string" by preprocessor); 
// Compiler sees
printf("This \"line\" will be converted to \"string\" by preprocessor""\n");

## operator or Token pasting operator is used to concatenate two parameters or tokens of a Macro.

// preprocessor will combine the variable and the x
#define PRINT(x) printf("variable" #x " = %d", variable##x)

int variableY = 15;
PRINT(Y);
//compiler sees
printf("variable""Y"" = %d", variableY);

and the final output will be

variableY = 15

Found a mistake? Have a question or improvement idea? Let me know.

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