What exactly does an #if 0 … #endif block do?

Question

In C/C++

What happens to code placed between an #if 0/#endif block?

#if 0

//Code goes here

#endif
         


        

Answer 1

It's identical to commenting out the block, except with one important difference: Nesting is not a problem. Consider this code:

foo();
bar(x, y); /* x must not be NULL */
baz();

If I want to comment it out, I might try:

/*
foo();
bar(x, y); /* x must not be NULL */
baz();
*/

Bzzt. Syntax error! Why? Because block comments do not nest, and so (as you can see from SO's syntax highlighting) the */ after the word "NULL" terminates the comment, making the baz call not commented out, and the */ after baz a syntax error. On the other hand:

#if 0
foo();
bar(x, y); /* x must not be NULL */
baz();
#endif

Works to comment out the entire thing. And the #if 0s will nest with each other, like so:

#if 0
pre_foo();
#if 0
foo();
bar(x, y); /* x must not be NULL */
baz();
#endif
quux();
#endif

Although of course this can get a bit confusing and become a maintenance headache if not commented properly.