PRE31-C. Never invoke an unsafe macro with arguments containing assignment, increment, decrement, or function call

Never invoke an unsafe macro with arguments containing an assignment, increment, decrement, or function call. An unsafe macro function is one that evaluates a parameter more than once in the code expansion. The documentation for such macros must warn about putting side effects on the invocation, and the responsibility is on the programmer using the macro.

Non-Compliant Coding Example

One reliability problem with unsafe macros is side effects on macro arguments. A typical example is the following non-compliant code example, which increments n twice:

#define ABS(x) (((x) <	0) ? -(x) : (x))

ABS(++n); /* undefined behavior */

Compliant Solution

One compliant solution is simply not to invoke an unsafe macro with arguments containing an assignment, increment, decrement, or function call, as in the following example:

#define ABS(x) (((x) <	0) ? -(x) : (x))
++n;
ABS(n);

A second compliant solution is to declare ABS() as an inline function (see PRE00-A. Prefer inline functions to macros).

inline int abs(int x) {
  return (((x) < 0) ? -(x) : (x));
}
abs(++n);

Risk Assessment

Attempting to modify an object multiple times between sequence points may cause that object to take on an unexpected value. This can lead to unexpected program behavior.

Related Vulnerabilities

Search for vulnerabilities resulting from the violation of this rule on the CERT website.

References

[[ISO/IEC 9899-1999]] Section 5.1.2.3, "Program execution"
[[Plum 85]] Rule 1-11