Editing Inline function (section)

== Standard support ==
[[C++]] and [[C99]], but not its predecessors [[K&R C]] and [[C89 (C version)|C89]], have support for <code>inline</code> functions, though with different semantics. In both cases, <code>inline</code> does not force inlining; the compiler is free to choose not to inline the function at all, or only in some cases. Different compilers vary in how complex a function they can manage to inline. Mainstream C++ compilers like [[Visual C Plus Plus|Microsoft Visual C++]] and [[GNU Compiler Collection|GCC]] support an option that lets the compilers automatically inline any suitable function, even those not marked as <code>inline</code> functions. However, simply omitting the <code>inline</code> keyword to let the compiler make all inlining decisions is not possible, since the linker will then complain about duplicate definitions in different translation units. This is because <code>inline</code> not only gives the compiler a hint that the function should be inlined, it also has an effect on whether the compiler will generate a callable out-of-line copy of the function (see [[#Storage classes of inline functions|storage classes of inline functions]]).