How to debug macros efficiently in VS?

Question

I\'ve got a pretty complicated macro inside my (unmanaged) C++ code. Is there any way to expand macros in VS debugger? Or maybe there is another way to debug macros there?

Answer 1

I heard all possible negative answers on the topic:

• macros can only be expanded not evaluated
• preprocessor should parse also include files
• nested macros can be over-complicated
• conditional preprocessing can be tricky
• macros are evil just avoid them
• etc etc....

They are all true, but IMO they collide with the reality of everydays programming.

In fact, working on old C project, where macros were mostly simply used as functions, this became of crucial importance for me. Generating all preprocessed files with /P works, but is overkilling and time consuming. I just needed a tool that expands a simple macro defined a few lines above or at maximum in other file.

How to do that?

1. On Linux simply use GDB and his expand macros capabilities
2. On windows I use https://www.jetbrains.com/resharper-cpp/ integrated into Visual Studio

So, Yes, in a practical sense, it is possible.