What is the value of an undefined constant used in #if?
C++C PreprocessorC++ Problem Overview
My preprocessor appears to assume that undefined constants are 0 for the purpose of evaluating #if conditions.
Can this be relied upon, or do undefined constants give undefined behaviour?
C++ Solutions
Solution 1 - C++
Yes, it can be relied upon. The C99 standard specifies at §6.10.1 ¶3:
> After all replacements due to macro expansion and the defined unary
operator have been performed, all remaining identifiers are replaced with the pp-number
0
Edit
Sorry, I thought it was a C question; still, no big deal, the equivalent section in the C++ standard (§16.1 ¶4) states:
>After all replacements due to macro expansion and the defined unary operator
have been performed, all remaining identifiers and keywords, except for true and false, are replaced with the pp-number 0
The only difference is the different handling of true and false, which in C do not need special handling, while in C++ they have a special meaning even in the preprocessing phase.
Solution 2 - C++
An identifier that is not defined as a macro is converted to 0 before the expression is evaluated.
The exception is the identifier true, which is converted to 1. This is specific to the C++ preprocessor; in C, this doesn't happen and you would need to include <stdbool.h> to use true this way, in which case it will be defined as a macro and no special handling is required.
Solution 3 - C++
The OP was asking specifically about the C preprocessor and the first answer was correctly referring to the C preprocessor specification. But some of the other comments seem to blur the distinction between the C preprocessor and the C compiler. Just to be clear, those are two different things with separate rules and they are applied in two separate passes.
#if 0 == NAME_UNDEFINED
int foo = NAME_UNDEFINED;
#endif
This example will successfully output the foo definition because the C preprocessor evaluates NAME_UNDEFINED to 0 as part of a conditional expression, but a compiler error is generated because the initializer is not evaluated as a conditional expression and then the C compiler evaluates it as an undefined symbol.