Is it possible for C preprocessor macros to contain preprocessor directives?

Question

I would like to do the equivalent of the following:

#define print_max(TYPE) \\
#  ifdef TYPE##_MAX \\
     printf(\"%lld\\n\", TYPE##_MAX); \\
#  endif

prin         


        

Answer 1

As long as you're only interested in integral values, and assuming hardware using 2's compliment and 8-bit bytes:

// Of course all this MAX/MIN stuff assumes 2's compilment, with 8-bit bytes...

#define LARGEST_INTEGRAL_TYPE long long

/* This will evaluate to TRUE for an unsigned type, and FALSE for a signed
 * type.  We use 'signed char' since it should be the smallest signed type
 * (which will sign-extend up to <type>'s size) vs. possibly overflowing if
 * going in the other direction (from a larger type to a smaller one).
 */
#define ISUNSIGNED(type) (((type) ((signed char) -1)) > (type) 0)

/* We must test for the "signed-ness" of <type> to determine how to calculate
 * the minimum/maximum value.
 *
 * e.g., If a typedef'ed type name is passed in that is actually an unsigned
 * type:
 *
 *  typedef unsigned int Oid;
 *  MAXIMUM_(Oid);
 */
#define MINIMUM_(type)  ((type) (ISUNSIGNED(type) ? MINIMUM_UNSIGNED_(type)   \
                              : MINIMUM_SIGNED_(  type)))

#define MAXIMUM_(type)  ((type) (ISUNSIGNED(type) ? MAXIMUM_UNSIGNED_(type)   \
                          : MAXIMUM_SIGNED_(  type)))

/* Minumum unsigned value; zero, by definition -- we really only have this
 * macro for symmetry.
 */
#define MINIMUM_UNSIGNED_(type)     ((type) 0)

// Maximum unsigned value; all 1's.
#define MAXIMUM_UNSIGNED_(type)         \
     ((~((unsigned LARGEST_INTEGRAL_TYPE) 0))   \
      >> ((sizeof(LARGEST_INTEGRAL_TYPE) - sizeof(type)) * 8))

/* Minimum signed value; a 1 in the most-significant bit.
 *
 * We use LARGEST_INTEGRAL_TYPE as our base type for the initial bit-shift
 * because we should never overflow (i.e., <type> should always be the same
 * size or smaller than LARGEST_INTEGRAL_TYPE).
 */
#define MINIMUM_SIGNED_(type)       \
  ((type)               \
   ((signed LARGEST_INTEGRAL_TYPE)  \
    (~((unsigned LARGEST_INTEGRAL_TYPE) 0x0) << ((sizeof(type) * 8) - 1))))

// Maximum signed value; 0 in most-significant bit; remaining bits all 1's.
#define MAXIMUM_SIGNED_(type)       (~MINIMUM_SIGNED_(type))