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Assertions

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The assert expression is a debugging feature that you can use to test an expression. Upon failure in Debug mode, an assertion generates a system error dialog box.

Syntax

assert condition

Remarks

The assert expression has type bool -> unit.

The assert function resolves to Debug.Assert. This means its behavior is identical to having called Debug.Assert directly.

Assertion checking is enabled only when you compile in Debug mode; that is, if the constant DEBUG is defined. In the project system, by default, the DEBUG constant is defined in the Debug configuration but not in the Release configuration.

The assertion failure error cannot be caught by using F# exception handling.

Example

The following code example illustrates the use of the assert expression.

let subtractUnsigned (x : uint32) (y : uint32) =
    assert (x > y)
    let z = x - y
    z
// This code does not generate an assertion failure.
let result1 = subtractUnsigned 2u 1u
// This code generates an assertion failure.
let result2 = subtractUnsigned 1u 2u

See also