Fast way to insert include guard in Visual Studio

Question

I want to automatically insert include guards into newly created header files in Visual Studio 2012. Is there any predefined snippet for this purpose?

EDIT: I'm aware of #pragma once and its wide support by compilers. But our coding style forces me to use include guards.

Solution 1

In visual studio 2012 use the key combinations

Ctrl+K,Ctrl+S

It allows you to surround selected code with code snippets such as:

#if, #ifdef, #ifndef, if, class, do, enum, and many more

.. or specify your own: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms165394.aspx

Solution 2

#pragma once?

But no, I'm not aware of anything that automatically inserts the #ifndef, etc. for you.

Solution 3

Since you're tagging C++, you should add classes by the built-in wizard. The wizard creates #pragma once directives. This is even available for other compilers: #pragma once so you don't break plattform cross compatibility.

What you can do, however, is to create a VS macro like this one:

Option Strict Off
Option Explicit Off
Imports System

Public Module HeaderGuard
    Sub InsertHeaderGuard()
        Dim filename As String = DTE.ActiveDocument.Name
        filename = filename.ToUpper().Replace("."c, "_"c)
        DTE.ActiveDocument.Selection.Text = "#ifndef " + filename
        DTE.ActiveDocument.Selection.NewLine()
        DTE.ActiveDocument.Selection.Text = "#define " + filename
        DTE.ActiveDocument.Selection.NewLine(2)
        DTE.ActiveDocument.Selection.Text = "#endif /* " + filename + " */"
        DTE.ActiveDocument.Selection.NewLine()
    End Sub
End Module

Comments

[Rolf Kristensen]

Unless one is using Visual Studio 2012 (or newer), where macro support has been removed.

[JeffRSon]

Well, that's not too nice. But it may be considered to make an add-on out of it: stackoverflow.com/questions/12027485/… (haven't tried that though)

[Skizz]

@RolfKristensen: Have they really removed macro support? How dumb is that! I created loads of macros in VS2005 that did things like set up new files with #ifdef style guards, create classes and functions with comments. Add-ons are just too much effort to create compared to a macro. Does this also mean the record temporary macro is gone too? VS used to be really good but it seems to be getting worse with each release. Currently moving to emacs.

[JeffRSon]

As it looks, recording macros is also gone. Didn't know this too. Currently I'm looking at Visualstudiogallery (visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com) whether there might be an extension that helps.

[codeling]

ah I missed the VS 2012 part - I tried it in VS2010, and it tells me "...bound to command Surround With which is currently not available)"... so it seems they added it in between! thanks for the quick answer

[saurabheights]

Pragma once is default and not really relevant to question. It's already mentioned in question.

[Rich]

@saurabheights: Note that the part in the question was added after this answer ...