Modern C for Absolute Beginners: A Friendly Introduction to the C Programming Language

© Slobodan Dmitrović 2021

S. DmitrovićModern C for Absolute Beginnershttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-6643-4_23

23. Preprocessor

Slobodan Dmitrović¹  

(1)

Belgrade, Serbia

 

When we compile our program, roughly three things happen in sequence:

• Preprocessing

• Compilation

• Linking

The preprocessing is a process in which the preprocessor modifies the content of our source file(s) in various ways. The compiler then compiles the source code and turns it into object files. The linker then links the object files together and produces an executable file or a library.

When we start the compilation process, a preprocessor tool modifies our file’s source code before the compilation process begins. It does so by using various preprocessor directives. Directives start ...