Naming an Expression's Type
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You can give a name to the type of an expression using a `typedef'
declaration with an initializer. Here is how to define NAME as a type
name for the type of EXP:
typedef NAME = EXP;
This is useful in conjunction with the statements-within-expressions
feature. Here is how the two together can be used to define a safe
"maximum" macro that operates on any arithmetic type:
#define max(a,b) \
({typedef _ta = (a), _tb = (b); \
_ta _a = (a); _tb _b = (b); \
_a > _b ? _a : _b; })
The reason for using names that start with underscores for the local
variables is to avoid conflicts with variable names that occur within
the expressions that are substituted for `a' and `b'. Eventually we
hope to design a new form of declaration syntax that allows you to
declare variables whose scopes start only after their initializers;
this will be a more reliable way to prevent such conflicts.