assert

Hello everyone,


I saw a couple of form of assert in code on Windows,

1. ASSERT;
2. assert;
3. _ASSERT;
4. _assert.

Which one is the most correct to use? I saw people always define this to that, and I want to find the root one which is defined by Windows.

I also saw people manually define assert to NULL if macro DEBUG or _DEBUG is not defined, is that necessary?

I feel assert is in a mess and I want to find a clear and unified way for this item.


thanks in advance,
George

Here's a couple of links:
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/lib...ez(VS.80).aspx
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/lib...w4(VS.71).aspx

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/lib...fa(vs.71).aspx

assert is defined to "nothing" when NDEBUG is set. It may be that NDEBUG isn't strictly connected with _DEBUG or DEBUG, which may explain the #if statements you see - or someone has had some buggy/strange implementation of assert.h (or wherever the ASSERT came from)
I don't like calling a "nothing" define NULL since it can be confused with the NULL that is used for pointers and such, or '\0' - empty is another option.

--
Mats