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<title>Swallowing the Semicolon (The C Preprocessor)</title>

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<a name="Swallowing-the-Semicolon"></a>
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Next: <a href="Duplication-of-Side-Effects.html#Duplication-of-Side-Effects" accesskey="n" rel="next">Duplication of Side Effects</a>, Previous: <a href="Operator-Precedence-Problems.html#Operator-Precedence-Problems" accesskey="p" rel="prev">Operator Precedence Problems</a>, Up: <a href="Macro-Pitfalls.html#Macro-Pitfalls" accesskey="u" rel="up">Macro Pitfalls</a> &nbsp; [<a href="index.html#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="Index-of-Directives.html#Index-of-Directives" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p>
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<hr>
<a name="Swallowing-the-Semicolon-1"></a>
<h4 class="subsection">3.10.3 Swallowing the Semicolon</h4>
<a name="index-semicolons-_0028after-macro-calls_0029"></a>

<p>Often it is desirable to define a macro that expands into a compound
statement.  Consider, for example, the following macro, that advances a
pointer (the argument <code>p</code> says where to find it) across whitespace
characters:
</p>
<div class="smallexample">
<pre class="smallexample">#define SKIP_SPACES(p, limit)  \
{ char *lim = (limit);         \
  while (p &lt; lim) {            \
    if (*p++ != ' ') {         \
      p--; break; }}}
</pre></div>

<p>Here backslash-newline is used to split the macro definition, which must
be a single logical line, so that it resembles the way such code would
be laid out if not part of a macro definition.
</p>
<p>A call to this macro might be <code>SKIP_SPACES (p, lim)</code>.  Strictly
speaking, the call expands to a compound statement, which is a complete
statement with no need for a semicolon to end it.  However, since it
looks like a function call, it minimizes confusion if you can use it
like a function call, writing a semicolon afterward, as in
<code>SKIP_SPACES (p, lim);</code>
</p>
<p>This can cause trouble before <code>else</code> statements, because the
semicolon is actually a null statement.  Suppose you write
</p>
<div class="smallexample">
<pre class="smallexample">if (*p != 0)
  SKIP_SPACES (p, lim);
else &hellip;
</pre></div>

<p>The presence of two statements&mdash;the compound statement and a null
statement&mdash;in between the <code>if</code> condition and the <code>else</code>
makes invalid C code.
</p>
<p>The definition of the macro <code>SKIP_SPACES</code> can be altered to solve
this problem, using a <code>do &hellip; while</code> statement.  Here is how:
</p>
<div class="smallexample">
<pre class="smallexample">#define SKIP_SPACES(p, limit)     \
do { char *lim = (limit);         \
     while (p &lt; lim) {            \
       if (*p++ != ' ') {         \
         p--; break; }}}          \
while (0)
</pre></div>

<p>Now <code>SKIP_SPACES (p, lim);</code> expands into
</p>
<div class="smallexample">
<pre class="smallexample">do {&hellip;} while (0);
</pre></div>

<p>which is one statement.  The loop executes exactly once; most compilers
generate no extra code for it.
</p>
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