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Computer Programming Software Terms, Glossary and Dictionary
Inline Expansion
Inline expansion or inlining for short is a compiler optimization which "expands" a function call site into the actual implementation of the function which is called, rather than each call transferring control to a common piece of code. This reduces overhead associated with the function call, which is especially important for small and frequently called functions, and it helps call-site-specific compiler optimizations, especially constant propagation. The main drawback is that the expansion usually results in a larger binary code, which can actually hurt performance if it damages locality of reference or exceeds resource constraints.
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