The preprocessor is a text substitution tool that modifies the source code before it is compiled. This modification is done according to the preprocessor directives that are included in the source files. The directives are easily distinguished from normal programming code in that they all start with a hash sign (#). They must always appear as the first non-whitespace character on a line and do not need to end with a semicolon. The following table shows the preprocessor directives available in C along with their functions.
Directive | Description |
|---|---|
#include | File include |
#define ... |
