内联是对编译器的一个建议，它可以随意忽略。它非常适合小段代码。

如果你的函数是内联的，它基本上是插入到函数调用的代码中，而不是实际调用一个单独的函数。这有助于提高速度，因为你不必实际打电话。

它还帮助cpu进行流水线操作，因为它们不必用调用引起的新指令重新加载流水线。

唯一的缺点是可能会增加二进制大小，但只要函数很小，这就不会太大。

现在我倾向于把这类决定留给编译器(好吧，至少是聪明的编译器)。编写它们的人往往对底层架构有更详细的了解。

Why not make all functions inline by default? Because it's an engineering trade off. There are at least two types of "optimization": speeding up the program and reducing the size (memory footprint) of the program. Inlining generally speeds things up. It gets rid of the function call overhead, avoiding pushing then pulling parameters from the stack. However, it also makes the memory footprint of the program bigger, because every function call must now be replaced with the full code of the function. To make things even more complicated, remember that the CPU stores frequently used chunks of memory in a cache on the CPU for ultra-rapid access. If you make the program's memory image big enough, your program won't be able to use the cache efficiently, and in the worst case inlining could actually slow your program down. To some extent the compiler can calculate what the trade offs are, and may be able to make better decisions than you can, just looking at the source code.

在将函数内联到so库时遇到了同样的麻烦。似乎内联函数没有编译到库中。因此，如果一个可执行文件想要使用库的内联函数，链接器会输出一个“未定义引用”错误。(我碰巧用gcc 4.5编译Qt源代码。

我们的计算机科学教授敦促我们不要在c++程序中使用内联。当被问及原因时，他友好地向我们解释说，现代编译器应该自动检测何时使用内联。

是的，内联可以是一种优化技术，在任何可能的地方都可以使用，但显然这已经为你做了，只要有可能内联一个函数。

内联函数是编译器使用的优化技术。可以简单地在函数原型前加上inline关键字来使函数内联。内联函数指示编译器在代码中使用函数的任何地方插入完整的函数体。

优点:-

It does not require function calling overhead. It also save overhead of variables push/pop on the stack, while function calling. It also save overhead of return call from a function. It increases locality of reference by utilizing instruction cache. After in-lining compiler can also apply intra-procedural optimization if specified. This is the most important one, in this way compiler can now focus on dead code elimination, can give more stress on branch prediction, induction variable elimination etc..

要了解更多信息，可以点击这个链接 http://tajendrasengar.blogspot.com/2010/03/what-is-inline-function-in-cc.html

另一个讨论的结论是:

内联函数有什么缺点吗?

显然，使用内联函数并没有什么错。

但值得注意的是以下几点!

Overuse of inlining can actually make programs slower. Depending on a function's size, inlining it can cause the code size to increase or decrease. Inlining a very small accessor function will usually decrease code size while inlining a very large function can dramatically increase code size. On modern processors smaller code usually runs faster due to better use of the instruction cache. - Google Guidelines The speed benefits of inline functions tend to diminish as the function grows in size. At some point the overhead of the function call becomes small compared to the execution of the function body, and the benefit is lost - Source There are few situations where an inline function may not work: For a function returning values; if a return statement exists. For a function not returning any values; if a loop, switch or goto statement exists. If a function is recursive. -Source The __inline keyword causes a function to be inlined only if you specify the optimize option. If optimize is specified, whether or not __inline is honored depends on the setting of the inline optimizer option. By default, the inline option is in effect whenever the optimizer is run. If you specify optimize , you must also specify the noinline option if you want the __inline keyword to be ignored. -Source