Why is inlining considered faster than a function call?

Question

Now, I know it\'s because there\'s not the overhead of calling a function, but is the overhead of calling a function really that heavy (and worth the bloat of having it inli

Answer 1

Optimizing compilers apply a set of heuristics to determine whether or not inlining will be beneficial.

Sometimes gain from the lack of function call will outweigh the potential cost of the extra code, sometimes not.