My CP debugging template

Debugging in competitive programming (CP) is hard. But there are several attempts have been done to ease this process. Some people, including some top CP-ers, have spent their time writing some code, so-called debugging templates. These pieces of code are often used to print out some variables' value in the code. For example, tourist has his debugging template, which can be seen in some of his submissions here and here. Or Erricto with his ~~ugly~~ debugging template can be seen here (and here is the explanation). Some even go further and make the debugging more joyful by adding color for the output. But some people prefer a simpler approach, and nearly requires nothing, like Um_nik with his printf to stderr.

I also have my debugging template. But why would I created a new template, when I can just use a very comprehensive like tourist, a also comprehensive but ~~ugly~~ short like Erricto, or just writing things out like Um_nik? Well, I also prefer simplicity, but for writing a lot of debugging information, the Um_nik's way is too painful. And my short-term goal now is still ICPC, therefore investing time just to write nearly 100 lines of code, or writing code that even I cannot understand in a live competition is not fast and safe. More over, time should be invested more in thinking and carefully writing code. I I actually tried really hard to come up with something powerful enough but should be as simple as possible to type out.

Here is my debugging template (just a part of my CP template).

cpp

#define print_op(...) ostream& operator<<(ostream& out, const __VA_ARGS__& u)
// DEBUGING TEMPLETE ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
#define db(val) "["#val" = "<<(val)<<"] "
#define CONCAT_(x, y) x##y
#define CONCAT(x, y) CONCAT_(x, y)
#ifdef LOCAL_DEBUG   
#   define clog cerr << setw(__db_level * 2) << setfill(' ') << "" << setw(0)
#   define DB() debug_block CONCAT(dbbl, __LINE__)
    int __db_level = 0;
    struct debug_block {
        debug_block() { clog << "{" << endl; ++__db_level; }
        ~debug_block() { --__db_level; clog << "}" << endl; }
    };
#else
#   define clog if (0) cerr
#   define DB(...)
#endif

template<class U, class V> print_op(pair<U, V>) {
    return out << "(" << u.first << ", " << u.second << ")";
}
template<class Con, class = decltype(begin(declval<Con>()))>
typename enable_if<!is_same<Con, string>::value, ostream&>::type
operator<<(ostream& out, const Con& con) { 
    out << "{";
    for (auto beg = con.begin(), it = beg; it != con.end(); ++it)
        out << (it == beg ? "" : ", ") << *it;
    return out << "}";
}
template<size_t i, class T> ostream& print_tuple_utils(ostream& out, const T& tup) {
    if constexpr(i == tuple_size<T>::value) return out << ")"; 
    else return print_tuple_utils<i + 1, T>(out << (i ? ", " : "(") << get<i>(tup), tup); 
}
template<class ...U> print_op(tuple<U...>) {
    return print_tuple_utils<0, tuple<U...>>(out, u);
}
// ACTUAL SOLUTION START HERE ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

#define print_op(...) ostream& operator<<(ostream& out, const __VA_ARGS__& u)
// DEBUGING TEMPLETE ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
#define db(val) "["#val" = "<<(val)<<"] "
#define CONCAT_(x, y) x##y
#define CONCAT(x, y) CONCAT_(x, y)
#ifdef LOCAL_DEBUG   
#   define clog cerr << setw(__db_level * 2) << setfill(' ') << "" << setw(0)
#   define DB() debug_block CONCAT(dbbl, __LINE__)
    int __db_level = 0;
    struct debug_block {
        debug_block() { clog << "{" << endl; ++__db_level; }
        ~debug_block() { --__db_level; clog << "}" << endl; }
    };
#else
#   define clog if (0) cerr
#   define DB(...)
#endif

template<class U, class V> print_op(pair<U, V>) {
    return out << "(" << u.first << ", " << u.second << ")";
}
template<class Con, class = decltype(begin(declval<Con>()))>
typename enable_if<!is_same<Con, string>::value, ostream&>::type
operator<<(ostream& out, const Con& con) { 
    out << "{";
    for (auto beg = con.begin(), it = beg; it != con.end(); ++it)
        out << (it == beg ? "" : ", ") << *it;
    return out << "}";
}
template<size_t i, class T> ostream& print_tuple_utils(ostream& out, const T& tup) {
    if constexpr(i == tuple_size<T>::value) return out << ")"; 
    else return print_tuple_utils<i + 1, T>(out << (i ? ", " : "(") << get<i>(tup), tup); 
}
template<class ...U> print_op(tuple<U...>) {
    return print_tuple_utils<0, tuple<U...>>(out, u);
}
// ACTUAL SOLUTION START HERE ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Funny enough, for this purpose of this post, I actually did a little clean up for my template, so it is a bit different than some of my recent submissions.

It is not like super short, but compares to Erricto's template, I say this is short enough, but still powerful. It also has one feature that's I didn't see anywhere. Let's me explain.

Always print to `stderr`

To print information to stderr, we can use clog or cerr. These streams are almost equivalent, but cerr does not buffer the output. I see they are the same though because adding endl to the end of each printing statement automatically flushes out the buffer. In my template, I use clog (or rather, a macro called clog, more on that later).

Here are some advantages of printing the debug information to stderr:

First, we can separate the debug information from the program's output. Because if stdout is used instead (which a lot of people do), occasionally the submissions will get WA (wrong answer) verdict because of forgetting to remove the code for debugging.
Second, the debug information can be redirected into a file rather than the terminal. So if the program is run like this:
sh
```
./main < input.txt > output.txt 2> debug.log
```
```
./main < input.txt > output.txt 2> debug.log
```
or just add this line to the beginning of the main() function:
cpp
```
freopen("debug.log", "w", stderr);
```
```
freopen("debug.log", "w", stderr);
```
we can see the whole debug output on our favorite editor instead of the limited terminal.

And third, if we use a different stream than the cout, we can use macro to magically remove those debug lines. Check out my template again:

cpp

#ifdef LOCAL_DEBUG   
#   define clog cerr << flush << setw(__db_level * 2) << setfill(' ') << "" << setw(0)
//...
#else
#   define clog if (0) cerr
//...
#endif

#ifdef LOCAL_DEBUG   
#   define clog cerr << flush << setw(__db_level * 2) << setfill(' ') << "" << setw(0)
//...
#else
#   define clog if (0) cerr
//...
#endif

If there is not a macro named LOCAL_DEBUG defined beforehand, there will be no debug printing. For example, if we have the following code:

cpp

int a, b;
cin >> a >> b;
clog << "a = " << a << endl;
clog << "b = " << b << endl;
cout << (a + b) << endl;

int a, b;
cin >> a >> b;
clog << "a = " << a << endl;
clog << "b = " << b << endl;
cout << (a + b) << endl;

In case of no LOCAL_DEBUG, the code is transformed to:

cpp

int a, b;
cin >> a >> b;
if (0) cerr << "a = " << a << endl;
if (0) cerr << "b = " << b << endl;
cout << (a + b) << endl;

int a, b;
cin >> a >> b;
if (0) cerr << "a = " << a << endl;
if (0) cerr << "b = " << b << endl;
cout << (a + b) << endl;

which effectively tells the compiler to just remove these codes out because they will never be executed.

On the other hand, if LOCAL_DEBUG is defined, then it will be printed. But my clog macro in this case is a bit terrifying, so more on that later. To define LOCAL_DEBUG, one can define it when compiling the code.

g++ -DLOCAL_DEBUG ./main.cpp -o main

g++ -DLOCAL_DEBUG ./main.cpp -o main

The `db()` macro

cpp

#define db(val) "["#val" = "<<(val)<<"] "

#define db(val) "["#val" = "<<(val)<<"] "

This is a very basic macro, very fast to write, and yet it is very useful. Its job is to save us a lot of keystrokes: it will concatenate the expression (that is, what we passed to the macro) and the result of the expression, and wrap them around a pair of square brackets.

We can rewrite the above example:

cpp

int a, b;
cin >> a >> b;
clog << db(a) << db(b) << endl;
cout << (a + b) << endl;

int a, b;
cin >> a >> b;
clog << db(a) << db(b) << endl;
cout << (a + b) << endl;

If we enter 2 3 into the stdin, we will get the following from the stderr:

[a = 2] [b = 3]

[a = 2] [b = 3]

which is great, because we don't have to write the name of the variable before actually passing it value to clog.

But this is not just variable, but any kind of expression. For example:

cpp

clog << db(1) << db(2) << endl;
clog << db(gcd(6, 8)) << endl;
clog << db(string(10, '=')) << endl;
for (int i = 0; i < 5 ; ++i) {
    clog << db(i) << db(i * 2) << db(i * i)  << endl;
}
vector<int> odds = {1, 3, 5, 7, 9};
for (int i = 0; i < (int)odds.size(); ++i) {
    clog << db(i) << db(odds[i]) << db(odds[i] * 3 + 1) << endl;
}

clog << db(1) << db(2) << endl;
clog << db(gcd(6, 8)) << endl;
clog << db(string(10, '=')) << endl;
for (int i = 0; i < 5 ; ++i) {
    clog << db(i) << db(i * 2) << db(i * i)  << endl;
}
vector<int> odds = {1, 3, 5, 7, 9};
for (int i = 0; i < (int)odds.size(); ++i) {
    clog << db(i) << db(odds[i]) << db(odds[i] * 3 + 1) << endl;
}

The debugging output will be.

[1 = 1] [2 = 2] 
[gcd(6, 8) = 2] 
[string(10, '=') = ==========] 
[i = 0] [i * 2 = 0] [i * i = 0] 
[i = 1] [i * 2 = 2] [i * i = 1] 
[i = 2] [i * 2 = 4] [i * i = 4] 
[i = 3] [i * 2 = 6] [i * i = 9] 
[i = 4] [i * 2 = 8] [i * i = 16] 
[i = 0] [odds[i] = 1] [odds[i] * 3 + 1 = 4] 
[i = 1] [odds[i] = 3] [odds[i] * 3 + 1 = 10] 
[i = 2] [odds[i] = 5] [odds[i] * 3 + 1 = 16] 
[i = 3] [odds[i] = 7] [odds[i] * 3 + 1 = 22] 
[i = 4] [odds[i] = 9] [odds[i] * 3 + 1 = 28]

[1 = 1] [2 = 2] 
[gcd(6, 8) = 2] 
[string(10, '=') = ==========] 
[i = 0] [i * 2 = 0] [i * i = 0] 
[i = 1] [i * 2 = 2] [i * i = 1] 
[i = 2] [i * 2 = 4] [i * i = 4] 
[i = 3] [i * 2 = 6] [i * i = 9] 
[i = 4] [i * 2 = 8] [i * i = 16] 
[i = 0] [odds[i] = 1] [odds[i] * 3 + 1 = 4] 
[i = 1] [odds[i] = 3] [odds[i] * 3 + 1 = 10] 
[i = 2] [odds[i] = 5] [odds[i] * 3 + 1 = 16] 
[i = 3] [odds[i] = 7] [odds[i] * 3 + 1 = 22] 
[i = 4] [odds[i] = 9] [odds[i] * 3 + 1 = 28]

If I don't have my debugging template, this will be the first macro I will write (besides automatically commenting clog of course), and I actually can just use this macro to debug without the other. This macro can also be used with cout or any ostream, it is actually handy in some cases. For example, when I generating test cases, I can print the expected result and my solution result with this macro.

There are a handful of alternatives to this macro. Tourist’s template has a macro called debug which can accept multiple arguments instead of one like mine, but it does not work like mine. For example: int a = 1, b = 2; debug(a, b); will produce [a, b]: 1 2. Here the expressions are printed first, then their values. In the case of long-expression, I prefer the result next to the expression. There are attempts to do that with macro accepting multiple arguments, but they are just very long.

The `debug_block` struct and `DB()` macro.

This is the one additional feature that I am proud of, and also the core of this template. Let’s see the code once again.

cpp

#define CONCAT_(x, y) x##y
#define CONCAT(x, y) CONCAT_(x, y)
#ifdef LOCAL_DEBUG   
#   define clog cerr << setw(__db_level * 2) << setfill(' ') << "" << setw(0)
#   define DB() debug_block CONCAT(dbbl, __LINE__)
    int __db_level = 0;
    struct debug_block {
        debug_block() { clog << "{" << endl; ++__db_level; }
        ~debug_block() { --__db_level; clog << "}" << endl; }
    };
#else
#   define clog if (0) cerr
#   define DB(...)
#endif

#define CONCAT_(x, y) x##y
#define CONCAT(x, y) CONCAT_(x, y)
#ifdef LOCAL_DEBUG   
#   define clog cerr << setw(__db_level * 2) << setfill(' ') << "" << setw(0)
#   define DB() debug_block CONCAT(dbbl, __LINE__)
    int __db_level = 0;
    struct debug_block {
        debug_block() { clog << "{" << endl; ++__db_level; }
        ~debug_block() { --__db_level; clog << "}" << endl; }
    };
#else
#   define clog if (0) cerr
#   define DB(...)
#endif

The debug_block is very simple. It only changed the __db_level: add 1 when an instance of this struct is created, and decrease it by 1 when the instance is destroyed. __db_level is only used in the clog macro. The clog actually does a little thing before accepting the other values: it will print out 2 * __db_level spaces. This means when there is no instance of debug_block, no spaces before printing. If there is one instance, 2 spaces will be printed. And if there is k instance, 2 * k spaces.

To use this struct, simply declare a variable of unique name inside a code block. All clog statements afterward will be automatically indented by 2. Check out this example.

cpp

clog << "no indent" << endl;
debug_block first_db;                   // indent once
clog << "one indent" << endl;
clog << "same indent" << endl;
{
    debug_block second_db;              // indent twice
    clog << "more indent" << endl;
}
// dedent
int t = 1;
for (int i = 1; i <= 3; ++i) {
    debug_block third_db;               // indent again, but the level still is 2
    t *= i;
    clog << db(i) << db(t) << endl;
}

clog << "no indent" << endl;
debug_block first_db;                   // indent once
clog << "one indent" << endl;
clog << "same indent" << endl;
{
    debug_block second_db;              // indent twice
    clog << "more indent" << endl;
}
// dedent
int t = 1;
for (int i = 1; i <= 3; ++i) {
    debug_block third_db;               // indent again, but the level still is 2
    t *= i;
    clog << db(i) << db(t) << endl;
}

no indent
{
  one indent
  same indent
  {
    more indent
  }
  {
    [i = 1] [t = 1] 
  }
  {
    [i = 2] [t = 2] 
  }
  {
    [i = 3] [t = 6] 
  }
}

no indent
{
  one indent
  same indent
  {
    more indent
  }
  {
    [i = 1] [t = 1] 
  }
  {
    [i = 2] [t = 2] 
  }
  {
    [i = 3] [t = 6] 
  }
}

This works thanks to one of the features of C++: Resource Acquisition Is Initialization, or RAII for short. Broadly speaking, when the object is created, its constructor will be called, and the destructor will be called only when the instance is going out of its scope. This is also the principle of all of the stl collections, ifstream/ofstream, mutex, ... They will automatically free their resources when not needed, and for most of the case, it is when they are going out of their scope.

What's about the DB() macro? It is also used for saving keystrokes: instead of naming every instance of struct debug_block, it will generate a name, based on the line number when the macro is called, and declare an instance with that name. So the above example can be changed like following:

cpp

clog << "no indent" << endl;
DB();                               // <-- new here
clog << "one indent" << endl;
clog << "same indent" << endl;
{
    DB();                           // also here
    clog << "more indent" << endl;
}
int t = 1;
for (int i = 1; i <= 3; ++i) {
    DB();                           // and here
    t *= i;
    clog << db(i) << db(t) << endl;
}

clog << "no indent" << endl;
DB();                               // <-- new here
clog << "one indent" << endl;
clog << "same indent" << endl;
{
    DB();                           // also here
    clog << "more indent" << endl;
}
int t = 1;
for (int i = 1; i <= 3; ++i) {
    DB();                           // and here
    t *= i;
    clog << db(i) << db(t) << endl;
}

And the result is the same.

Of cause, this macro is automatically removed when there is noLOCAL_DEBUG macro.

This macro is really useful. For the problems with multiple test cases, this macro will separate debug information for each test. It can be used in a recursive function, producing an indent level for each recursive call. It simply can just be used anywhere just to separate the computation logic. This is the reason I am proud of this macro, and somehow I didn't see people created something quite like this.

The printing functions

Not everything can be printed to std::ostream (yet). But lucky for us, with the power of C++, we add overloading functions for printing what every type we like (except what already has that function).

Unlike Tourist, I only add 3 more basic printing functions, which are for std::pair, std::tuple and general container (std::vector, std::list, std::set, std::map, etc. ), except for std::string because it already existed.

I think demonstration is better in this case:

cpp

// simple pair
pair<int, string> a = {123, "abc"};
clog << db(a) << endl;

// simple vector
vector<int> b = {2, 4, 6, 8};
clog << db(b) << endl;

// vector with pair
vector<pair<int, int>> c = { {1, 2}, {2, 4}, {4, 6} };
cout << db(c) << endl;

// map
map<string, double> length_unit = {
    {"m", 1},
    {"cm", 0.01},
    {"mm", 0.001},
    {"km", 1000}
};
clog << db(length_unit) << endl;

// tuple
clog << db(make_tuple(1, 2, 3, 'a', 'b', 'c')) << endl;
clog << db(make_tuple(a, b, c)) << endl;

// set of vector
set<vector<int>> s = {
    {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6},
    {1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8},
    {1, 4, 9, 16, 25, 64},
};
clog << db(s) << endl;

// simple pair
pair<int, string> a = {123, "abc"};
clog << db(a) << endl;

// simple vector
vector<int> b = {2, 4, 6, 8};
clog << db(b) << endl;

// vector with pair
vector<pair<int, int>> c = { {1, 2}, {2, 4}, {4, 6} };
cout << db(c) << endl;

// map
map<string, double> length_unit = {
    {"m", 1},
    {"cm", 0.01},
    {"mm", 0.001},
    {"km", 1000}
};
clog << db(length_unit) << endl;

// tuple
clog << db(make_tuple(1, 2, 3, 'a', 'b', 'c')) << endl;
clog << db(make_tuple(a, b, c)) << endl;

// set of vector
set<vector<int>> s = {
    {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6},
    {1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8},
    {1, 4, 9, 16, 25, 64},
};
clog << db(s) << endl;

And the output to stderr:

[a = (123, abc)] 
[b = {2, 4, 6, 8}] 
[length_unit = {(cm, 0.01), (km, 1000), (m, 1), (mm, 0.001)}] 
[make_tuple(1, 2, 3, 'a', 'b', 'c') = (1, 2, 3, a, b, c)] 
[make_tuple(a, b, c) = ((123, abc), {2, 4, 6, 8}, {(1, 2), (2, 4), (4, 6)})] 
[s = {{ '{{' }}1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8}, {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6}, {1, 4, 9, 16, 25, 64}}]

[a = (123, abc)] 
[b = {2, 4, 6, 8}] 
[length_unit = {(cm, 0.01), (km, 1000), (m, 1), (mm, 0.001)}] 
[make_tuple(1, 2, 3, 'a', 'b', 'c') = (1, 2, 3, a, b, c)] 
[make_tuple(a, b, c) = ((123, abc), {2, 4, 6, 8}, {(1, 2), (2, 4), (4, 6)})] 
[s = {{ '{{' }}1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8}, {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6}, {1, 4, 9, 16, 25, 64}}]

Let's see the code for the magic that I used 😉.

cpp

#define print_op(...) ostream& operator<<(ostream& out, const __VA_ARGS__& u)
// DEBUGING TEMPLETE ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// ...
// for printing std::pair
template<class U, class V> print_op(pair<U, V>) {
    return out << "(" << u.first << ", " << u.second << ")";
}
// for printing collection
template<class Con, class = decltype(begin(declval<Con>()))>
typename enable_if<!is_same<Con, string>::value, ostream&>::type
operator<<(ostream& out, const Con& con) { 
    out << "{";
    for (auto beg = con.begin(), it = beg; it != con.end(); ++it)
        out << (it == beg ? "" : ", ") << *it;
    return out << "}";
}
// for printing std::tuple
template<size_t i, class T> ostream& print_tuple_utils(ostream& out, const T& tup) {
    if constexpr(i == tuple_size<T>::value) return out << ")"; 
    else return print_tuple_utils<i + 1, T>(out << (i ? ", " : "(") << get<i>(tup), tup); 
}
template<class ...U> print_op(tuple<U...>) {
    return print_tuple_utils<0, tuple<U...>>(out, u);
}

#define print_op(...) ostream& operator<<(ostream& out, const __VA_ARGS__& u)
// DEBUGING TEMPLETE ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// ...
// for printing std::pair
template<class U, class V> print_op(pair<U, V>) {
    return out << "(" << u.first << ", " << u.second << ")";
}
// for printing collection
template<class Con, class = decltype(begin(declval<Con>()))>
typename enable_if<!is_same<Con, string>::value, ostream&>::type
operator<<(ostream& out, const Con& con) { 
    out << "{";
    for (auto beg = con.begin(), it = beg; it != con.end(); ++it)
        out << (it == beg ? "" : ", ") << *it;
    return out << "}";
}
// for printing std::tuple
template<size_t i, class T> ostream& print_tuple_utils(ostream& out, const T& tup) {
    if constexpr(i == tuple_size<T>::value) return out << ")"; 
    else return print_tuple_utils<i + 1, T>(out << (i ? ", " : "(") << get<i>(tup), tup); 
}
template<class ...U> print_op(tuple<U...>) {
    return print_tuple_utils<0, tuple<U...>>(out, u);
}

Firstly, the macro print_op is used to save a few keystrokes. It accepts a type and expands to the printing function (or rather operator<<) signature.

The printing for std::pair is straightforward though.

Next is the printing function for general containers. First I need to check if it is a probable container, and here I check if it has the begin() iterator. This is done by pulling out the type of the begin iterator of the container type. If it failed to do so, then it is not a container. Failing here is not an error though, also because of a C++ feature: Substitution Failure Is Not An Error, or SFINAE. The next magic trick is checking if the type is the same as std::string, which is done by std::enable_if. After all of the magic, printing is also straightforward. The only downside of this approach is everything is on one line (unlike python pretty print), but when the log is opened on an editor, that does not matter as far as we can separate lines by hand. Or we can use for-loop in the case of multiple-dimension containers.

And finally, the printing for std::tuple. I put it last because it is not always necessary (a struct is preferred for more fields). Here I used a helper function that prints out the tuple in the recursive style. We can not use a simple for-loop like with containers because we don't know the size as well as the fields' types of the tuple at the runtime. But we know this information in the compile-time, hence the use of the template parameter for keeping track of the number of the printed fields.

And finally, because we add more printing functions to a custom type, the print_op macro will come in handy. For example:

cpp

// a line with slope form: y = ax + b
struct Line {
    double a, b;
    Line(double a_, double b_): a(a_), b(b_) {}
    double operator()(double x) const {
        return a * x + b;
    }
    friend print_op(Line) {
        return out << "y = " << u.a << " * x " << showpos << u.b;
    }
};

struct Circle {
    double x, y, r;
    Circle(double x_, double y_, double r_) : x(x_), y(y_), r(r_) {
        assert(r >= 0);
    }
    friend print_op(Circle) {
        return out << "(x " << showpos << -u.x << ") ^ 2 + (y " << showpos << -u.y << ")^2 = " << u.r << "^2";
    }
};

// inside main
clog << Line(1, 2) << endl;
clog << Line(-1, 2) << endl;
clog << Circle(1, 2, 3) << endl;

// a line with slope form: y = ax + b
struct Line {
    double a, b;
    Line(double a_, double b_): a(a_), b(b_) {}
    double operator()(double x) const {
        return a * x + b;
    }
    friend print_op(Line) {
        return out << "y = " << u.a << " * x " << showpos << u.b;
    }
};

struct Circle {
    double x, y, r;
    Circle(double x_, double y_, double r_) : x(x_), y(y_), r(r_) {
        assert(r >= 0);
    }
    friend print_op(Circle) {
        return out << "(x " << showpos << -u.x << ") ^ 2 + (y " << showpos << -u.y << ")^2 = " << u.r << "^2";
    }
};

// inside main
clog << Line(1, 2) << endl;
clog << Line(-1, 2) << endl;
clog << Circle(1, 2, 3) << endl;

And the output:

y = 1 * x +2
y = -1 * x +2
(x -1) ^ 2 + (y -2)^2 = +3^2

y = 1 * x +2
y = -1 * x +2
(x -1) ^ 2 + (y -2)^2 = +3^2

The output is meaningful enough that we can plug it onto desmos. Here is the live example of the above output.

Some tips for using this template

For print array, instead of just printing out db(a[i]), index can also be printed:
cpp
```
clog << db(i) << db(a[i]) << endl;
```
```
clog << db(i) << db(a[i]) << endl;
```

Well, I do have a printing function for std::vector, but the above also applied for the case where we want to print values that depend on the current index.

A multiple-dimension array can also be print as above, but if there are a lot of them, using DB() might help:

cpp

for (int i = 0; i < n; ++i) {
    DB();
    clog << db(i) << endl;
    for (int j = 0; j < m; ++j) {
        clog << db(j) << db(a[i][j]) << endl;
    }
}

for (int i = 0; i < n; ++i) {
    DB();
    clog << db(i) << endl;
    for (int j = 0; j < m; ++j) {
        clog << db(j) << db(a[i][j]) << endl;
    }
}

DB() macro can be used inside every kind of code block. To wrap a part of the log inside a debug_block, we can just use a simple code block around that
part of the code.
DB() macro can also be used in recursion, like dfs. Just don't run it on large input, otherwise, the output is too wide to handle.
db() macro can also be used inside print_op. It is OK-ish, but not too clean.

Conclusion

Well, this is my first actual post. I said that I might not write about competitive programming, but it seems like I have some OK-ish topics to share.

It is not what I intend to write in the first place: I actually planned to write about debugging in CP in general. But firstly, that idea is based on my debugging template, and secondly, I actually have to explain what in the world is my template about. So I ended up with the first long blog post just talking about how my code works. I do not regret tho, because explaining this is necessary for the initial idea, and I also like to share my template anyway, talking about how cool my template is.

With that all being said, I hope you enjoy this kind of technical post about just a small piece of code, which I do proud of, and still used a lot. See you in the next post!

Side note

I started this post on 07/30, but end up abundant it for about 2 weeks. I only tried to finish this post because I reduce the goal from a post about debugging to just about my template. So yeah, the first post, yay!

Always print to stderr ​

The db() macro ​

The debug_block struct and DB() macro. ​

The printing functions ​

Some tips for using this template ​

Conclusion ​

Side note ​