What are #ifndef and #define Directives

In the C Programming Language, the #ifndef directive checks if the given token has been #defined earlier in the C code. If the token has not been defined earlier then it includes the code between #ifndef and #else. If no #else is present then code between #ifndef and #endif is included.

The both #ifndef and #define directives are known as header guards or #include guard in C/C++. They are used to prevent multiple declarations of variables and other data types and header files from being included multiple times. The #ifndef also prevents recursive inclusions of header files. Another non-standard preprocessor directive named #pragma once is widely used to force the inclusion of a header file only once.

The syntax of using #ifndef is as below:

#ifndef 
#define 
// some code declarations
#endif

Use of #ifndef and #define

Here is a rather complete C program to demonstrate the use of #ifndef and #define.

#include <stdio.h>

#ifndef INTEREST_RATE
#define INTEREST_RATE 8
#endif

int main()
{
   printf("Current Interest Rate is %d percent.\n", INTEREST_RATE );

   return 0;
}

The output of the above C program is:

Current Interest Rate is 8 percent.

Here is a another C program to demonstrate the use of #ifndef and #define. As INTEREST_RATE is already defined so #ifndef does not execute.

#include <stdio.h>

#define INTEREST_RATE 9
#ifndef INTEREST_RATE
#define INTEREST_RATE 8
#endif

int main()
{
   printf("Current Interest Rate is %d percent.\n", INTEREST_RATE );

   return 0;
}

The output of the above program is:

Current Interest Rate is 9 percent.