DEBUG statements--what are they??

Hi,

I have a question about DEBUG statements. I am not sure how they work.

I keep seeing #ifdef DEBUG

--some code--

#endif

Could someone please give an example or maybe a good site where I can understand how DEBUG statements work and what they are for??

Thanks a lot for the help!

It's actually not a statement, it's a preprocessor define.

If DEBUG is defined, the code between if and endif will be compiled. So it's a way to enable or disable parts of your program at compiletime.

I assume in your case, the code between if and endif somehow helps the coder to find bugs in the code. Since it would also probably slow down the application, this additional, otherwise unneccessary code can be disabled by not defining DEBUG.

You can define a preprocessor value like

#define somename somevalue

somevalue is optional

or undefine it with

#undef somename


Check this link.

thanks---I have another ?

between the #ifdef DEBUG and #endif there are cout debugging statements.

I want to see these statements...

I ran the program and got a.out, but not sure how to be able to execute the line b/w the #ifdef DEBUG and #endif.

I tried doing a.out DEBUG, but this didn't work??

How would I be able to do that??

Thanks for the help!

thanks anyway....I just figured it out...