debugging - C++ enable/disable debug messages of std::couts on the fly

Question

Is there a way to define/undefine debug messages using std::cout whenever inside a program?

I am aware that there are such things such as #define, #ifndef, but I was thinking is there a cleaner way to having a variable say:

# debug ON

That prints all of my debug data (using std::cout). Consequently, we'll have code like this for debug:

#ifndef DEBUG
// do something useful
#endif

I find the above code cumbersome when you write 100s of debug code.

Thanks!

Carlo

Answer 1

#ifdef DEBUG
#define DEBUG_MSG(str) do { std::cout << str << std::endl; } while( false )
#else
#define DEBUG_MSG(str) do { } while ( false )
#endif

int main()
{
    DEBUG_MSG("Hello" << ' ' << "World!" << 1 );
    return 0;
}