How Can I Preprocess C/C Source Files in Visual Studio and View the Result?

Preprocessing C/C Source Files in Visual Studio

If you're working with source files containing numerous preprocessor directives, it can be beneficial to visualize the file's appearance after preprocessing. One may wonder if there's a way to achieve this within Microsoft Visual Studio.

cl.exe: A Versatile Tool for Preprocessing

The cl.exe command-line interface, often used with Visual C , provides several options for outputting preprocessed files:

• Preprocess to stdout (/E): Similar to GCC's -E option, this option sends the preprocessed file to the standard output.
• Preprocess to file (/P): This option directly generates a preprocessed file.
• Preprocess to stdout without #line directives (/EP): This option outputs the preprocessed file without including #line directives.

Customized Preprocessing Options

If you desire to preprocess to a file while excluding #line directives, you can combine the /P and /EP options. Consider the following command:

cl.exe /EP /P source_file.c

The above command preprocesses the source_file.c file to a file without #line directives. This offers a convenient way to inspect the file after preprocessing within Visual Studio.

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