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Message with style

22 Feb 2002 1  
Add this simple #define to add compiler messages with location to your source code

VC's #pragma message

Ever tried to add the line number of a compile time message to your source code?

#pragma message(__FILE__ __LINE__ ": important part to be changed!!"

Won't work. Anyway, with some tricks you can do exactly this. The nice thing is that you will never ever again need to use "Find" to locate a particular message in your source code. Just double click the line with your message in the output window and VC's editor will jump to that location.

Here is what you need to add to your source code to make this work:

#define __STR2__(x) #x
#define __STR1__(x) __STR2__(x)
#define __LOC__ __FILE__ "("__STR1__(__LINE__)") : Warning Msg: "
#define __LOC2__ __FILE__ "("__STR1__(__LINE__)") : "

Now you can use the #pragma message to add the location of the message:

#pragma message(__LOC__ "important part to be changed")
#pragma message(__LOC2__ "error C9901: wish that error would exist")

The preceding pragmas will yield the following output from the compiler (preprocessor)

C:\code\pragma\test.cpp(33) : Warning Msg: important part to be changed
c:\code\pragma\test.cpp(34) : error C9901: wish that error would exist

Have fun with your new #pragma's...

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