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.

Create a rather simple VS macro - see my answer below. Then you can assign a hotkey to it. — JeffRSon, Jun 07 '13 at 08:15

score 8 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 07 '13 at 08:40

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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

answered Jun 07 '13 at 08:40

Enigma

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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 – codeling Sep 13 '13 at 08:21

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 07 '13 at 07:08

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#pragma once?

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

answered Jun 07 '13 at 07:08

Joey

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Pragma once is default and not really relevant to question. It's already mentioned in question. – saurabheights Jun 03 '16 at 07:26
@saurabheights: Note that the part in the question was added _after_ this answer ... – Joey Jun 03 '16 at 07:54

JeffRSon · Answer 3 · 2013-06-07T08:13:58.540

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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

edited Jun 07 '13 at 08:13

answered Jun 07 '13 at 07:16

JeffRSon

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Unless one is using Visual Studio 2012 (or newer), where macro support has been removed. – Rolf Kristensen Jun 07 '13 at 08:17
Well, that's not too nice. But it may be considered to make an add-on out of it: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/12027485/alternative-to-macros-in-visual-studio-2012 (haven't tried that though) – JeffRSon Jun 07 '13 at 08:24
@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. – Skizz Jun 07 '13 at 08:27
As it looks, recording macros is also gone. Didn't know this too. Currently I'm looking at Visualstudiogallery (http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/) whether there might be an extension that helps. – JeffRSon Jun 07 '13 at 08:46

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Nov 14 '15 at 10:12

If you have Visual Assist X you can remove your #pragma once if present, select the rest of the text, right click and Surround with (VA) => #ifdef guard in a header. If you don't like the default you can override it going to VASSISTX menu and selecting Tools => Edit VA Snippets...

score 0 · Answer 5 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:54

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You could use a tool like autohotkey. Here is an answer to an simular question.

edited May 23 '17 at 11:54

Community

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answered Jun 07 '13 at 07:18

Jan Herrmann

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Fast way to insert include guard in Visual Studio

5 Answers5