diff --git a/src/libs/cplusplus/PPToken.h b/src/libs/cplusplus/PPToken.h
index 3fbb3ad482b..eb59fc847be 100644
--- a/src/libs/cplusplus/PPToken.h
+++ b/src/libs/cplusplus/PPToken.h
@@ -96,8 +96,11 @@ public:
     const QByteArray &source() const
     { return m_src; }
 
-    const char *start() const
-    { return m_src.constData() + offset; }
+    const char *bufferStart() const
+    { return m_src.constData(); }
+
+    const char *tokenStart() const
+    { return bufferStart() + offset; }
 
     ByteArrayRef asByteArrayRef() const
     { return ByteArrayRef(&m_src, offset, length()); }
diff --git a/src/libs/cplusplus/pp-engine.cpp b/src/libs/cplusplus/pp-engine.cpp
index b65f52fdfd4..02e09230b2f 100644
--- a/src/libs/cplusplus/pp-engine.cpp
+++ b/src/libs/cplusplus/pp-engine.cpp
@@ -852,7 +852,7 @@ bool Preprocessor::handleFunctionLikeMacro(PPToken *tk, const Macro *macro, QVec
                                 lineno = t.lineno;
                             else if (t.whitespace())
                                 newText.append(' ');
-                            newText.append(t.start(), t.length());
+                            newText.append(t.tokenStart(), t.length());
                         }
                         newText.replace("\\", "\\\\");
                         newText.replace("\"", "\\\"");
@@ -973,8 +973,8 @@ _Lrestart:
             } else if (tk.isValid() && !prevTk.isValid() && tk.lineno == m_env->currentLine) {
                 out(QByteArray(prevTk.length() + (tk.whitespace() ? 1 : 0), ' '));
             } else if (prevTk.generated() != tk.generated() || !prevTk.isValid()) {
-                const char *begin = tk.source().constBegin();
-                const char *end = begin + tk.offset;
+                const char *begin = tk.bufferStart();
+                const char *end = tk.tokenStart();
                 const char *it = end - 1;
                 for (; it >= begin; --it)
                     if (*it == '\n')
@@ -983,8 +983,8 @@ _Lrestart:
                 for (; it < end; ++it)
                     out(' ');
             } else {
-                const char *begin = tk.source().constBegin();
-                const char *end = begin + tk.offset;
+                const char *begin = tk.bufferStart();
+                const char *end = tk.tokenStart();
                 const char *it = end - 1;
                 for (; it >= begin; --it)
                     if (!pp_isspace(*it) || *it == '\n')
@@ -1502,6 +1502,14 @@ bool Preprocessor::isQtReservedWord(const ByteArrayRef &macroId)
 
 PPToken Preprocessor::generateToken(enum Kind kind, const char *content, int len, unsigned lineno, bool addQuotes)
 {
+    // When reconstructing the column position of a token,
+    // Preprocessor::preprocess will search for the last preceeding newline.
+    // When the token is a generated token, the column position cannot be
+    // reconstructed, but we also have to prevent it from searching the whole
+    // scratch buffer. So inserting a newline before the new token will give
+    // an indent width of 0 (zero).
+    m_scratchBuffer.append('\n');
+
     const size_t pos = m_scratchBuffer.size();
 
     if (kind == T_STRING_LITERAL && addQuotes)
@@ -1533,8 +1541,8 @@ PPToken Preprocessor::generateConcatenated(const PPToken &leftTk, const PPToken
 {
     QByteArray newText;
     newText.reserve(leftTk.length() + rightTk.length());
-    newText.append(leftTk.start(), leftTk.length());
-    newText.append(rightTk.start(), rightTk.length());
+    newText.append(leftTk.tokenStart(), leftTk.length());
+    newText.append(rightTk.tokenStart(), rightTk.length());
     return generateToken(T_IDENTIFIER, newText.constData(), newText.size(), leftTk.lineno, true);
 }
 
diff --git a/tests/auto/cplusplus/preprocessor/data/identifier-expansion.3.out.cpp b/tests/auto/cplusplus/preprocessor/data/identifier-expansion.3.out.cpp
index 14724d9ccbf..689220f32e6 100644
--- a/tests/auto/cplusplus/preprocessor/data/identifier-expansion.3.out.cpp
+++ b/tests/auto/cplusplus/preprocessor/data/identifier-expansion.3.out.cpp
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ op_ADD, op_SUB,
 static const char *names[] = {
 #gen true
 # 2 "data/identifier-expansion.3.cpp"
-            "ADD"
+"ADD"
 
 
 ,