Your MAX has no respect for namespaces or scopes. A real world macro is probably going to be called MYLIBRARY_MAX to avoid this. Secondly the C++ lambda solutio

Your MAX has no respect for namespaces or scopes. A real world macro is probably going to be called MYLIBRARY_MAX to avoid this. Secondly the C++ lambda solution is just easier to read. auto max = [](auto a, auto b) { return (a > b) ? a : b; }; max (3.1415, 42); // returns double max (42ul, 78u); // returns unsigned long max (17, 16); // returns int