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<a name="Function_002dlike-Macros"></a>
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Next: <a href="Macro-Arguments.html#Macro-Arguments" accesskey="n" rel="next">Macro Arguments</a>, Previous: <a href="Object_002dlike-Macros.html#Object_002dlike-Macros" accesskey="p" rel="prev">Object-like Macros</a>, Up: <a href="Macros.html#Macros" accesskey="u" rel="up">Macros</a> &nbsp; [<a href="index.html#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="Index-of-Directives.html#Index-of-Directives" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p>
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<a name="Function_002dlike-Macros-1"></a>
<h3 class="section">3.2 Function-like Macros</h3>
<a name="index-function_002dlike-macros"></a>

<p>You can also define macros whose use looks like a function call.  These
are called <em>function-like macros</em>.  To define a function-like macro,
you use the same &lsquo;<samp>#define</samp>&rsquo; directive, but you put a pair of
parentheses immediately after the macro name.  For example,
</p>
<div class="smallexample">
<pre class="smallexample">#define lang_init()  c_init()
lang_init()
     &rarr; c_init()
</pre></div>

<p>A function-like macro is only expanded if its name appears with a pair
of parentheses after it.  If you write just the name, it is left alone.
This can be useful when you have a function and a macro of the same
name, and you wish to use the function sometimes.
</p>
<div class="smallexample">
<pre class="smallexample">extern void foo(void);
#define foo() /* <span class="roman">optimized inline version</span> */
&hellip;
  foo();
  funcptr = foo;
</pre></div>

<p>Here the call to <code>foo()</code> will use the macro, but the function
pointer will get the address of the real function.  If the macro were to
be expanded, it would cause a syntax error.
</p>
<p>If you put spaces between the macro name and the parentheses in the
macro definition, that does not define a function-like macro, it defines
an object-like macro whose expansion happens to begin with a pair of
parentheses.
</p>
<div class="smallexample">
<pre class="smallexample">#define lang_init ()    c_init()
lang_init()
     &rarr; () c_init()()
</pre></div>

<p>The first two pairs of parentheses in this expansion come from the
macro.  The third is the pair that was originally after the macro
invocation.  Since <code>lang_init</code> is an object-like macro, it does not
consume those parentheses.
</p>


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