Question

I’ve a very basic class, name it Basic, used in nearly all other files in a bigger project. In some cases, there needs to be debug output, but in release mode, this should not be enabled and be a NOOP.

Currently there is a define in the header, which switches a makro on or off, depending on the setting. So this is definetely a NOOP, when switched off. I’m wondering, if I have the following code, if a compiler (MSVS / gcc) is able to optimize out the function call, so that it is again a NOOP. (By doing that, the switch could be in the .cpp and switching will be much faster, compile/link time wise).

--Header--
void printDebug(const Basic* p);

class Basic {
   Basic() {
      simpleSetupCode;

      // this should be a NOOP in release, 
      // but constructor could be inlined
      printDebug(this);
   }
};
--Source--
// PRINT_DEBUG defined somewhere else or here
#if PRINT_DEBUG
void printDebug(const Basic* p) {
   // Lengthy debug print
}
#else
void printDebug(const Basic* p) {}
#endif

Answer 1

As with all questions like this, the answer is – if it really matters to you, try the approach and examine the emitted assembly language.