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(cpp-300.info)Function-like Macros

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Function-like Macros
====================

   You can also define macros whose use looks like a function call.
These are called "function-like macros".  To define a function-like
macro, you use the same `#define' directive, but you put a pair of
parentheses immediately after the macro name.  For example,

     #define lang_init()  c_init()
     lang_init()
          ==> c_init()

   A function-like macro is only expanded if its name appears with a
pair of parentheses after it.  If you write just the name, it is left
alone.  This can be useful when you have a function and a macro of the
same name, and you wish to use the function sometimes.

     extern void foo(void);
     #define foo() /* optimized inline version */
     ...
       foo();
       funcptr = foo;

   Here the call to `foo()' will use the macro, but the function
pointer will get the address of the real function.  If the macro were to
be expanded, it would cause a syntax error.

   If you put spaces between the macro name and the parentheses in the
macro definition, that does not define a function-like macro, it defines
an object-like macro whose expansion happens to begin with a pair of
parentheses.

     #define lang_init ()    c_init()
     lang_init()
          ==> () c_init()()

   The first two pairs of parentheses in this expansion come from the
macro.  The third is the pair that was originally after the macro
invocation.  Since `lang_init' is an object-like macro, it does not
consume those parentheses.