FAQ/DoWhile0
Why do a lot of #defines in the kernel use do { ... } while(0)?
There are a couple of reasons:
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(from Dave Miller) Empty statements give a warning from the compiler so this is why you see #define FOO do { } while(0).
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(from Dave Miller) It gives you a basic block in which to declare local variables.
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(from Ben Collins) It allows you to use more complex macros in conditional code. Imagine a macro of several lines of code like:
#define FOO(x) \ printf("arg is %s\n", x); \ do_something_useful(x);
if (blah == 2) FOO(blah);
if (blah == 2) printf("arg is %s\n", blah); do_something_useful(blah);;
As you can see, the if then only encompasses the printf(), and the do_something_useful() call is unconditional (not within the scope of the if), like you wanted it. So, by using a block likedo { ... } while(0), you would get this:
if (blah == 2) do { printf("arg is %s\n", blah); do_something_useful(blah); } while (0);
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(from Per Persson) As both Miller and Collins point out, you want a block statement so you can have several lines of code and declare local variables. But then the natural thing would be to just use for example:
#define exch(x,y) { int tmp; tmp=x; x=y; y=tmp; }
However that wouldn't work in some cases. The following code is meant to be anif-statement with two branches:
if (x > y) exch(x,y); // Branch 1 else do_something(); // Branch 2
But it would be interpreted as an if-statement with only one branch:
if (x > y) { // Single-branch if-statement!!! int tmp; // The one and only branch consists tmp = x; // of the block. x = y; y = tmp; } ; // empty statement else // ERROR!!! "parse error before else" do_something();
The problem is the semi-colon (;) coming directly after the block. The solution for this is to sandwich the block between do and while (0). Then we have a single statement with the capabilities of a block, but not considered as being a block statement by the compiler.Our if-statement now becomes:
if (x > y) do { int tmp; tmp = x; x = y; y = tmp; } while(0); else do_something();
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(from Bart Trojanowski) gcc adds Statement-Expressions which provide an alternative to the do-while-0 block. They provide the above mentioned benefits and are slightly more legible.
#define FOO(arg) ({ \ typeof(arg) lcl; \ lcl = bar(arg); \ lcl; \ })