它是一个函数，如果它计算的值为false，则将停止程序执行。通常它被宏包围，这样在使用发布设置编译时就不会编译到结果二进制文件中。

它被设计用来测试你所做的假设。例如:

void strcpy(char* dest, char* src){
    //pointers shouldn't be null
    assert(dest!=null);
    assert(src!=null);

    //copy string
    while(*dest++ = *src++);
}

理想的情况是，您可以在程序中犯错误，例如调用带有无效参数的函数，并且在它发生段错误(或未能按预期工作)之前命中断言。

assert()函数可以诊断程序错误。在C语言中，它定义在<assert.h>中，在c++中定义在<cassert>中。它的原型是

void assert(int expression);

参数表达式可以是您想要测试的任何东西——变量或任何C表达式。如果expression的值为TRUE, assert()不执行任何操作。如果表达式的计算值为FALSE, assert()在stderr上显示错误消息并中止程序执行。

How do you use assert()? It is most frequently used to track down program bugs (which are distinct from compilation errors). A bug doesn't prevent a program from compiling, but it causes it to give incorrect results or to run improperly (locking up, for example). For instance, a financial-analysis program you're writing might occasionally give incorrect answers. You suspect that the problem is caused by the variable interest_rate taking on a negative value, which should never happen. To check this, place the statement

断言(利率>= 0); 在程序中使用interest_rate的位置。如果变量变成负数，assert()宏会提醒您。然后，您可以检查相关代码以定位问题的原因。

要查看assert()如何工作，请运行下面的示例程序。如果输入非零值，程序将显示该值并正常终止。如果输入0,assert()宏强制异常终止程序。你看到的确切错误消息将取决于你的编译器，但这里有一个典型的例子:

断言失败:x，文件list19_3.c，第13行 注意，为了使assert()工作，您的程序必须在调试模式下编译。有关启用调试模式的信息，请参阅编译器文档(稍后解释)。稍后在发布模式下编译最终版本时，assert()宏将被禁用。

 int x;

 printf("\nEnter an integer value: ");
 scanf("%d", &x);

 assert(x >= 0);

 printf("You entered %d.\n", x);
 return(0);

输入整型值:10

您输入了10。

输入整型值:-1

错误信息: 程序异常终止

您的错误消息可能不同，这取决于您的系统和编译器，但总体思想是相同的。

assert computer语句类似于英语中的make sure语句。

使用assert()函数而不是普通的if else和printf有三个主要原因

assert() function is mainly used in the debugging phase, it is tedious to write if else with a printf statement everytime you want to test a condition which might not even make its way in the final code. In large software deployments , assert comes very handy where you can make the compiler ignore the assert statements using the NDEBUG macro defined before linking the header file for assert() function. assert() comes handy when you are designing a function or some code and want to get an idea as to what limits the code will and not work and finally include an if else for evaluating it basically playing with assumptions.

c++ 11 N3337标准草案

http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg21/docs/papers/2012/n3337.pdf

19.3断言

头文件<cassert>，如表42所示，提供了一个宏，用于记录c++程序断言 以及禁用断言检查的机制。 2内容与标准C库头文件<assert.h>相同。

c99n1256标准草案

http://www.open-std.org/JTC1/SC22/WG14/www/docs/n1256.pdf

7.2诊断<assert.h> .h

1 The header <assert.h> defines the assert macro and refers to another macro, NDEBUG which is not defined by <assert.h>. If NDEBUG is defined as a macro name at the point in the source file where <assert.h> is included, the assert macro is defined simply as #define assert(ignore) ((void)0) The assert macro is redefined according to the current state of NDEBUG each time that <assert.h> is included. 2. The assert macro shall be implemented as a macro, not as an actual function. If the macro definition is suppressed in order to access an actual function, the behavior is undefined.

7.2.1程序诊断

7.2.1.1 assert宏

Synopsis 1. #include <assert.h> void assert(scalar expression); Description 2 The assert macro puts diagnostic tests into programs; it expands to a void expression. When it is executed, if expression (which shall have a scalar type) is false (that is, compares equal to 0), the assert macro writes information about the particular call that failed (including the text of the argument, the name of the source file, the source line number, and the name of the enclosing function — the latter are respectively the values of the preprocessing macros __FILE__ and __LINE__ and of the identifier __func__) on the standard error stream in an implementation-defined format. 165) It then calls the abort function. Returns 3 The assert macro returns no value.

像“抛出异常”和“停止执行”这样的东西可能对大多数编译器是正确的，但不是所有的。(顺便问一下，真的有assert语句抛出异常吗?)

下面是c6x和其他TI编译器使用的assert的一个有趣的、略有不同的含义:在看到某些assert语句时，这些编译器使用该语句中的信息来执行某些优化。邪恶。

C语言示例:

int dot_product(short *x, short *y, short z)
{
  int sum = 0
  int i;

  assert( ( (int)(x) & 0x3 ) == 0 );
  assert( ( (int)(y) & 0x3 ) == 0 );

  for( i = 0 ; i < z ; ++i )
    sum += x[ i ] * y[ i ];
  return sum;
}

这告诉解编译器数组是在32位边界上对齐的，因此编译器可以生成针对这种对齐的特定指令。