C# Essentials

Preprocessor Directives

Preprocessor directives supply the compiler with additional information about regions of code. The most common preprocessor directives are the conditional directives, which provide a way to include or exclude regions of code from compilation. For example:

#define DEBUG
class MyClass {
  int x;
  void Foo( ) {
  # if DEBUG
    Console.WriteLine("Testing: x = {0}", x);
  # endif
  ...
}

In this class, the statement in Foo is compiled conditionally, dependent upon the presence of the user-selected DEBUG symbol. If you remove the DEBUG symbol, the statement isn’t compiled. Preprocessor symbols can be defined within a source file as just shown, and they can be passed to the compiler with the /define : symbol command-line option. All preprocessor symbols are implicitly true, so the previous #define statement is effectively identical to:

#define DEBUG = true

The #error and #warning symbols prevent accidental misuse of conditional directives by making the compiler generate a warning or error given an undesirable set of compilation symbols.

Preprocessor Directives

The C# language supports the preprocessor directives shown in Table 2.4.

Table 2-4. Preprocessor Directives

Preprocessor Directive	Action
#define symbol	Defines symbol
#undef symbol	Undefines symbol
#if symbol [operator symbol2] ...	symbol to test; operator: == , != ,&& ,|| followed by #else, #elif, #endif
#else	Executes code to subsequent #endif
#elif symbol [operator symbol2]	Combines #else ...