[c-preprocessor] What exactly does an #if 0 ..... #endif block do?

In C/C++

What happens to code placed between an #if 0/#endif block?

#if 0

//Code goes here

#endif

Does the code simply get skipped and therefore does not get executed?

Not quite

int main(void)
{
   #if 0
     the apostrophe ' causes a warning
   #endif
   return 0;
}

It shows "t.c:4:19: warning: missing terminating ' character" with gcc 4.2.4

It is a cheap way to comment out, but I suspect that it could have debugging potential. For example, let's suppose you have a build that output values to a file. You might not want that in a final version so you can use the #if 0... #endif.

Also, I suspect a better way of doing it for debug purpose would be to do:

#ifdef DEBUG
// output to file
#endif

You can do something like that and it might make more sense and all you have to do is define DEBUG to see the results.

It's identical to commenting out the block, except with one important difference: Nesting is not a problem. Consider this code:

foo();
bar(x, y); /* x must not be NULL */
baz();

If I want to comment it out, I might try:

/*
foo();
bar(x, y); /* x must not be NULL */
baz();
*/

Bzzt. Syntax error! Why? Because block comments do not nest, and so (as you can see from SO's syntax highlighting) the */ after the word "NULL" terminates the comment, making the baz call not commented out, and the */ after baz a syntax error. On the other hand:

#if 0
foo();
bar(x, y); /* x must not be NULL */
baz();
#endif

Works to comment out the entire thing. And the #if 0s will nest with each other, like so:

#if 0
pre_foo();
#if 0
foo();
bar(x, y); /* x must not be NULL */
baz();
#endif
quux();
#endif

Although of course this can get a bit confusing and become a maintenance headache if not commented properly.

Lines beginning with a # are preprocessor directives. #if 0 [...] #endif blocks do not make it to the compiler and will generate no machine code.

You can demonstrate what happens with the preprocessor with a source file ifdef.cxx:

#if 0
This code will not be compiled
#else
int i = 0;
#endif

Running gcc -E ifdef.cxx will show you what gets compiled.

You may choose to use this mechanism to prevent a block of code being compiled during the development cycle, but you would probably not want to check it in to your source control as it just adds cruft to your code and reduces readability. If it's a historical piece of code that has been commented out, then it should be removed: source control contains the history, right?

Also, the answer may be the same for both C and C++ but there is no language called C/C++ and it's not a good habit to refer to such a language.

It permanently comments out that code so the compiler will never compile it.

The coder can later change the #ifdef to have that code compile in the program if he wants to.

It's exactly like the code doesn't exist.

I'd like to add on for the #else case:

#if 0
   /* Code here will NOT be complied. */
#else
   /* Code will be compiled. */
#endif


#if 1
   /* Code will be complied. */
#else
   /* Code will NOT be compiled. */
#endif

When the preprocessor sees #if it checks whether the next token has a non-zero value. If it does, it keeps the code around for the compiler. If it doesn't, it gets rid of that code so the compiler never sees it.

If someone says #if 0 they are effectively commenting out the code so it will never be compiled. You can think of this the same as if they had put /* ... */ around it. It's not quite the same, but it has the same effect.

If you want to understand what happened in detail, you can often look. Many compilers will allow you to see the files after the preprocessor has run. For example, on Visual C++ the switch /P command will execute the preprocessor and put the results in a .i file.