Quick Navigation Bar
creating libraries :: tips and tricks :: overview
[ toc | forums ]

Note: If the document URL does not begin with http://randu.org/tutorials/c/ then you are viewing a copy. Please direct your browser to the correct location for the most recent version.

Programming Tips and Tricks

Below is a listing of a few tips you can use when you are programming.

Quick Commenting

Sometimes you may find yourself trying to comment blocks of code which have comments within them. Because C does not allow nested comments, you may find that the */ comment end is prematurely termanating your comment block. You can utilize the C Preprocessor's #if directive to circumvent this:
```
  #if 0
    /* This code here is the stuff we want commented */
    if (a != 0) {
      b = 0;
    }
  #endif
```

Quick Debugging Statements

In the C Preprocessor section, we mentioned that you could turn on and off Debugging statements by using a #define. Expanding on that, it is even more convenient if you write a macro (using the PRINTF() macro from the I/O section):
```
#ifdef DEBUG
#define DPRINTF(s) PRINTF(s)
#else
#define DPRINTF(s)
#endif
```
Now you can have DPRINTF(("Debugging statement")); for debugging statements! This can be turned on and off using the -DDEBUG gcc flag.

Quick man Lookup in vim or emacs

In vim, move your cursor over the standard function library call you want to lookup, or any other word that might be in the man pages. Press K (capital k).
In emacs, open up your .emacs file and this line:
```
  (global-set-key [(f1)] (lambda () (interactive) (manual-entry (current-word))))
```
Now you can load up emacs put the cursor on the word in question and press the F1 key to load up the man page on it. You can replace the F1 key with anything you wish.