debug version of serial.print

Using Arduino Programming Questions
#1

hello, I try to make a debug version of serial.print and serial.println so I can make someting like

#boolean DEBUG = true;

void debugprint(toprint)
{
if debug
{
Serial.print(toprint);
}
}

void debugprintln(toprint)
{
if debug
{
Serial.println(toprint);
}
}

In the program I can then use debugprint as replacement for Serial.print and the same for debugprintln.

I don’t get this working. Can someone help ?

#2

You have lowercase and upercase for the same variable, but the compiler is case sensitive. Try this:

#boolean DEBUG = true;
void debugprint(toprint) { if DEBUG Serial.print(toprint); }
void debugprintln(toprint) { if DEBUG Serial.println(toprint); }
#3

In the case where all my Serial output is for debugging, I use this:

#define DEBUG true  //set to true for debug output, false for no debug ouput
#define Serial if(DEBUG)Serial

Add this to setup() if you are using a Leonardo, Pro Micro, or other ATmega32U4 based board and don’t want the program to run until the Serial Monitor has been opened while debug output is enabled:

while (DEBUG && !Serial);

This can easily be extended to allow multiple levels of debug output, still with no overhead:

#define DEBUG_ERROR true
#define DEBUG_ERROR_SERIAL if(DEBUG_ERROR)Serial

#define DEBUG_WARNING true
#define DEBUG_WARNING_SERIAL if(DEBUG_WARNING)Serial

#define DEBUG_INFORMATION true
#define DEBUG_INFORMATION_SERIAL if(DEBUG_INFORMATION)Serial

void setup() {
  Serial.begin(9600);
  while (!Serial);
  DEBUG_ERROR_SERIAL.println("This is an error message");
  DEBUG_WARNING_SERIAL.println("This is a warning message");
  DEBUG_INFORMATION_SERIAL.print("The state of pin 5 is ");
  DEBUG_INFORMATION_SERIAL.println(digitalRead(5) ? "HIGH" : "LOW");
  Serial.println("This is standard program output");
}

void loop() {}

It can also be useful if you use Serial in your non-debug code and only want to turn the debug output on/off.

You can use the boolean debug macros to switch on and off other parts of your code too.

#4

Hmm, tried something like this but it didn't work but will try it thanks.

Tried it and it works great.

Thanks a lot

#5 
void debugprint(toprint) {
   if debug {
     Serial.print(toprint);
   }
}

A problem is that you need a "type" for the toprint argument, but Serial.print() accepts a whole bunch of different types (strings, floats, integers, integers AND base, floats AND precision...) AFAIK, there's not clever way to do this in C/C++, so you're forced into using less elegant techniques like Pert's preprocessor-macro based technique.

#6