watch #define constant expression in debug

Paul wrote:
> Hello guys,
> i came about a something strange to me while programming and Debugging
> some c-Code with AVR-Studio 7. I was trying to watch the value of an
> Expression while Debugging, but i get the message "unknown identifier".
> The Expression is defined as follows:
>
> #define THRESH1 (uint16_t) ((uint32_t)1024*(500 + 1*800)/5000)
>
> does anyone has an idea, why i can't watch the value of this constant?

Because it is a preprocessor macro. At runtime, it doesn't exist in that 
form anymore. A macro is similar to your editors search/replace 
functions, just with the difference that the text to be replaced is 
specified within the processed file itself.

> By the way, i've tried declaring it localy or global, but i still get
> the same message.

There is no such thing as "locally" or "gobally" with respect to macros.

> Moreover, i tried with the following Expression:
>
> const uint16_t thresh1_3 = (uint16_t) ((uint32_t)1024*(500 +
> 3*800)/5000);
>
> but the watch variable only works when it is a local constant, not
> global.

It might get optimized out by the compiler. Does the symbol thresh1_3 
exist in the generated executable?

If your macro is expected to represent just a numerical expression 
(macros could actually represent anything) then you could directly 
assign it to a variable for debugging purposes. If you make that 
variable volatile then it won't be optimized away and you can watch it 
in the debugger to confirm that your macro expands and evaluates to the 
correct value.

1

#define FOO_BAR  (uint16_t) ((uint32_t)1024*(500 + 1*800)/5000)

2

3

// fixme: remove this after you know its evaluated correctly

4

volatile uint16_t debug_foo_bar = FOO_BAR;