Macro debug_assert

macro_rules! debug_assert {
    ($($arg:tt)*) => { ... };
}

Asserts that a boolean expression is true at runtime.

This will invoke the panic! macro if the provided expression cannot be evaluated to true at runtime.

Like assert!, this macro also has a second version, where a custom panic message can be provided.

Uses

Unlike assert!, debug_assert! statements are only enabled in non optimized builds by default. An optimized build will not execute debug_assert! statements unless -C debug-assertions is passed to the compiler. This makes debug_assert! useful for checks that are too expensive to be present in a release build but may be helpful during development. The result of expanding debug_assert! is always type checked.

An unchecked assertion allows a program in an inconsistent state to keep running, which might have unexpected consequences but does not introduce unsafety as long as this only happens in safe code. The performance cost of assertions, however, is not measurable in general. Replacing assert! with debug_assert! is thus only encouraged after thorough profiling, and more importantly, only in safe code!

Examples

// the panic message for these assertions is the stringified value of the
// expression given.
debug_assert!(true);

fn some_expensive_computation() -> bool { true } // a very simple function
debug_assert!(some_expensive_computation());

// assert with a custom message
let x = true;
debug_assert!(x, "x wasn't true!");

let a = 3; let b = 27;
debug_assert!(a + b == 30, "a = {}, b = {}", a, b);