windows - Overhead associated with OutputDebugString in release build

Question

Is there a significant overhead associated with calling OutputDebugString in release build?

Answer 1

Measured - 10M calls take about 50 seconds. I think it's significant overhead for unused functionality.

Using a macro can help get rid of this in release build:

#ifdef _DEBUG
    #define LOGMESSAGE( str ) OutputDebugString( str );
#else
    #define LOGMESSAGE( str )
#endif

Not only removes the calls, but also the parameters evaluation and the text strings are entirely removed and you'll not see them in the binary file.