c++cvisual-c++gccgcc-warning

MSVC equivalent of __attribute__ ((warn_unused_result))?

I'm finding __attribute__ ((warn_unused_result)) to be very useful as a means of encouraging developers not to ignore error codes returned by functions, but I need this to work with MSVC as well as gcc and gcc-compatible compilers such as ICC. Do the Microsoft Visual Studio C/C++ compilers have an equivalent mechanism ? (I've tried wading through MSDN without any luck so far.)

Solution

  • It's _Check_return_. See here for examples of similar annotations and here for function behaviour. It's supported since MSVC 2012.

    Example:

    _Check_return_
int my_return_must_be_checked() {
    return 42;
}