Simple ways to disable parts of code

Question

This isn\'t a typical question to solve a specific problem, it\'s rather a brain exercise, but I wonder if anyone has a solution.

In development we often need to disable

Answer 1

Sometimes i use this approach to just not overbloat the code by infinite sequence of if-endif definitions.

debug.hpp

#ifdef _DEBUG
    #define IF_DEBUG(x) if(x)
#else
    #define IF_DEBUG(x) if(false)
#endif

example.cpp

#include "debug.hpp"

int a,b, ... ,z;

...

IF_DEBUG(... regular_expression_here_with_a_b_z ...) {
    // set of asserts
    assert(... a ...);
    assert(... b ...);
    ...
    assert(... z ...);
}

This is not always effective, because compiler may warn you about unused variables has used inside such disabled blocks of code. But at least it is better readable and unused variable warnings can be suppressed for example like this:

IF_DEBUG(... regular_expression_here_with_a_b_z ...) {
    // set of asserts
    assert(... a ...);
    assert(... b ...);
    ...
    assert(... z ...);
}
else {
    (void)a;
    (void)b;
    ....
    (void)z;
}

It is not always a good idea, but at least helps to reorganize the code.