c - strange result on macro expansion

Question

Consider the following code snippet

#include<stdio.h>
#define A -B
#define B -C
#define C 5

int main()
{
  printf("The value of A is %d
", A);
  return 0;
}

Output

The value of A is 5

But this shouldn't compile at all because after expansion it should look something like printf("The value of A is %d ", --5); and then it should give compile error saying lvalue required. Isn't it ?

Answer 1

I do not think so. Even macro expansion is text processing, it is impossible to create a token from across macro boundaries. Therefore it as -(-5), not --5, because -- is a single token.