(std::min)(x, y)

[matta]

I notice that often Abseil calls std::min and std::max like this:

capacity = (std::min)(capacity, kCustomLimit);

Why?

See https://github.com/search?l=&p=1&q=std%3A%3Amin+repo%3Aabseil%2Fabseil-cpp+extension%3Ah&ref=advsearch&type=Code

[derekmauro]

We use (std::min)(a, b) in headers because Windows has macros named min and max. Our own build rules have /DNOMINMAX, but we can't guarantee that everyone #include-ing our headers also has /DNOMINMAX. Somehow the parenthesis is a workaround, although I don't know what parsing rule makes it work.

https://godbolt.org/z/M8Grc6xab

[matta]

Ah yeah, with "function style" macros I bet the preprocessor stage needs to see a '(' token after the macro's name, and the parenthesis defeats that.