title: Why and when to use __noop?
body: <p>I was reading about <a href="https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/s6btaxcs.aspx" rel="noreferrer">__noop</a> and the MSDN example is</p>
  
  <pre><code>#if DEBUG
     #define PRINT   printf_s
  #else
     #define PRINT   __noop
  #endif
  
  int main() {
     PRINT("\nhello\n");
  }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>and I don't see the gain over just having an empty macro:</p>
  
  <pre><code>#define PRINT
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>The generated code is the same. What's a valid example of using <code>__noop</code> that actually makes it useful?</p>