Debugging the traditional way
Virtually every competitive programmer sometimes needs to print the values from some container, or array, or just a variable during debugging. This is where appear those ugly nested loops which take several minutes to write:
vector<int> a[4][6] = {{{2,3}, {4}}, {{6,2}, {4,5}}};
for(int i = 0; i < size(a); ++i, cout << endl){
for(int j = 0; j < size(a[i]); ++j, cout << endl){
for(int k : a[i][j]){
cout << k << ' ';
}
}
}
OMG, and bound checking for simple output of an array of vectors? 2D, 3D, it doesn't matter anymore if we can't write it concisely. And those stupid endls for empty cells...
Debugging with f_dbg()
I was fed up with traditional this and wrote a simple several-liner for printing almost everything one might want. The output is in python style. It has some limitations, but generally I like it.
You can find it here. My code exploits C++17 features, so choose the appropriate compiler.
The compact version is created from extended by means of http://removelinebreaks.net/
How formatted debug works
Let me call c-array, vector, deque, array just arr. Then, basically, f_dbg() can output sub-arr. You just need to pass the name of arr and [two closed bounds] for each dimension, or omit several last bounds. If they are too large, f_dbg() reduces them so that they are inside the arr. By default the bounds are set on start and end of each dimension.
If type of element of arr is some other arr-type, f_dbg() is recursively called with this element as argument until the simplest types are reached. You know them: int, char, double, and so on. They are then neatly printed, and that's all.
Other data structures like maps, sets don't have any indices, that's why they are printed from begin to end. In maps, f_dbg()is called both from the key and the value.
Pairs are printed the same way — recursive f_dbg() from the first element and from the second.
/*-----------------------------------------------*/
Compare:
// traditional way(modified for similarity with f_dbg())
int x1 = 0;
int x2 = size(a)-1;
for(int i = x1; i <= x2; ++i, cout << endl){
int y1 = 0;
int y2 = size(a[i])-1;
for(int j = y1; j <= y2; ++j, cout << endl){
for(int k : a[i][j]){
cout << k << ' ';
}
}
}
// f_dbg()
f_dbg(a,0,1);
traditional version outputs:
2 3
4
6 2
4 5
/*...endls...*/
f_dbg() outputs:
[[[2,3],[4],[]]
[[6,2],[4,5],[]]]
/*-----------------------------------------------*/
Debugging with n_dbg()
Ever dreamt of printing names of variables and their values the readable way without << "my_var" << my_var?
Look at named debug
We can make use of macro functions. Let's do this:
#define _(x) #x, ": ", x, ", "
It just substitutes the bare argument with its name, colon, value, and comma. We can now create a function n_dbg() that takes arbitrary number of arguments and calls f_dbg() with each. Then if you want to get more info about an argument in output, you put it into _(), if just its value, simply type name_of_argument comma ", " (to separate it from the next argument). By default after this block of output endl is printed.
Compare:
string t = "dfs"; pair<int, string> u = {123, "ksdf"};
auto v = [](int l, int r){return l + r;};
cout << t << "| " << "u " << u.first << " " << u.second << "| " << "v " << v(3,4) << "| " << v(3,4) << endl;
n_dbg(t, ", ", _(u), _(v(3,4)), v(3,4));
traditional version outputs:
dfs| u 123 ksdf| v 7| 7
n_dbg() outputs:
[dfs, u: [123,ksdf], v(3,4): 7, 7]
/*-----------------------------------------------*/
Hope this code saves your precious minutes during contests. Enjoy.
P.S. If you want to adapt this code to c++11 or 14, I don't mind if you clone this blog for (c++11/14 edition). Alternatively, you can suggest me your code to add to this post, so that all versions are together.
UPD1: I added into the n_dbg() section an example of the raw output of an argument, of output of a function
UPD2: In Wandbox I put the names of debug functions in the begin of the block of code for copying so that you don't forget them.
UPD3: const char* output added
