Has anyone ever had a use for the __COUNTER__ pre-processor macro?

Question

The __COUNTER__ symbol is provided by VC++ and GCC, and gives an increasing non-negative integral value each time it is used.

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Answer 1

I've used it in a compile-time assertion macro to have the macro create a name for a typedef that will be unique. See

• Ways to ASSERT expressions at build time in C

if you want the gory details.