Multiple inclusion is prevented using “include guards”, which are sometimes also known as header guards or macro guards. … It is also necessary to ensure that the macros used in include guards do not conflict with any other macros defined in header files.
Should you always use include guards?
Formally, you don’t need include guards in your bar. h . It has a single function declaration, which can be repeated many times in one translation units. So, including this header multiple times will not lead to errors.
Why pragma once instead of include guards?
#pragma once is shorter than an include guard, less error prone, supported by most compilers, and some say that it compiles faster (which is not true [any longer]).
Is pragma once necessary?
I recommend using #pragma once instead of old macro-based header guards. It will reduce the number of preprocessor macros and prevent potential and hard to find compilation problems. You should also replace existing macro-based header guards with this statement if you do maintenance work on existing code.
What happens if we include a header file twice?
If a header file happens to be included twice, the compiler will process its contents twice. This is very likely to cause an error, e.g. when the compiler sees the same structure definition twice. … The preprocessor will skip over the entire contents of the file, and the compiler will not see it twice.
What do header guards protect against?
Header guards are designed to ensure that the contents of a given header file are not copied more than once into any single file, in order to prevent duplicate definitions. … Note that header guards do not prevent the contents of a header file from being copied (once) into separate project files.
What is guard code?
Regardless of which programming language is used, guard clause, guard code, or guard statement, is a check of integrity preconditions used to avoid errors during execution. … A typical example is checking that a reference about to be processed is not null, which avoids null-pointer failures.
Where can I use pragma once?
#pragma once is a preprocessor directive used to prevent header files from being included multiple times. The #pragma once directive, once present in a file, assures that the file will not be included multiple times in the current project.
How do you write header guards?
Include guards work by “wrapping” the contents of the header in such a way that the second and subsequent includes are no-ops. The #ifndef/#define directives should be the first two lines of the file, and #endif should be the last. Include guards are only used in headers.
Does C have pragma once?
In the C and C++ programming languages, pragma once is a non-standard but widely supported preprocessor directive designed to cause the current source file to be included only once in a single compilation. …
Does pragma once work in g ++?
Meanwhile, there are a lot of compilers that understand #pragma once. Most modern and relevant compilers support it, at least VC++, g++, clang, Intel. To be on the safe side, you should still prefer the classical header guards — #pragma once is not C++ standard, and no compiler is forced to support it.
Is #pragma once Portable?
#pragma once is accepted for compatibility with other compilers, and enables you to use other forms of header guard coding. However, Arm recommends using #ifndef and #define coding because this is more portable.