FUNCTIONS AND MACROS

Macros vs Functions

Macros are pre-processed which means that all the macros would be processed before your program compiles. However, functions are not preprocessed but compiled.

See the following example of Macro:

#include<stdio.h> #define NUMBER 10 int main() {      printf("%d", NUMBER);      return 0; }

Output:

10

See the following example of Function:

#include<stdio.h> int number() {     return 10; } int main() {     printf("%d", number());     return 0; }

Output:

10

Difference between macro and function

No	Macro	Function
1	Macro is Preprocessed	Function is Compiled
2	No Type Checking	Type Checking is Done
3	Code Length Increases	Code Length remains Same
4	Use of macro can lead to side effect	No side Effect
–
5	Speed of Execution is Faster	Speed of Execution is Slower
6	Before Compilation macro name is replaced by macro value	During function call , Transfer of Control takes place
7	Useful where small code appears many time	Useful where large code appears many time
8	Generally Macros do not extend beyond one line	Function can be of any number of lines
9	Macro does not Check Compile Errors	Function Checks Compile Errors