Should one never use static inline function?

Question

There are two implications of using the inline keyword(§ 7.1.3/4):

1. It hints the compiler that substitution of function body at the point of call is preferable over the usual function call mechanism.
2. Even if the inline substitution is omitted, the other rules(especially w.r.t One Definition Rule) for inline are followed.

Usually any mainstream compiler will substitute function body at the point of call if needed, so marking function inline merely for #1 is not really needed.

Further w.r.t #2, As I understand when you declare a function as static inline function,

The static keyword on the function forces the inline function to have an internal linkage(inline functions have external linkage) Each instance of such a function is treated as a separate function(address of each function is different) and each instance of these functions have their own copies of static local variables & string literals(an inline function has only one copy of these)

Thus such a function acts like any other static function and the keyword inline has no importance anymore, it becomes redundant.

So, Practically marking a function static and inline both has no use at all. Either it should be static(not most preferred) or inline(most preferred),
So, Is using static and inline together on a function practically useless?

Answer 1

Your analysis is correct, but doesn't necessarily imply uselessness. Even if most compilers do automatically inline functions (reason #1), it's best to declare inline just to describe intent.

Disregarding interaction with inline, static functions should be used sparingly. The static modifier at namespace scope was formerly deprecated in favor of unnamed namespaces (C++03 §D.2). For some obscure reason that I can't recall it was removed from deprecation in C++11 but you should seldom need it.

So, Practically marking a function static and inline both has no use at all. Either it should be static(not most preferred) or inline(most preferred),

There's no notion of preference. static implies that different functions with the same signature may exist in different .cpp files (translation units). inline without static means that it's OK for different translation units to define the same function with identical definitions.

What is preferred is to use an unnamed namespace instead of static:

namespace {
    inline void better(); // give the function a unique name
}

static inline void worse(); // kludge the linker to allowing duplicates

Answer 2

Static and inline are orthogonal (independent). Static means the function should not be visible outside of the translation unit, inline is a hint to the compiler the programmer would like to have this function inlined. Those two are not related.

Using static inline makes sense when the inlined function is not used outside of the translation unit. By using it you can prevent a situation of accidental violation of ODR rule by naming another inlined function in another tranlation unit with the same name.

Example:

source1.cpp:

inline int Foo()
{
  return 1;
}

int Bar1()
{
  return Foo();
}

source2.cpp:

inline int Foo()
{
  return 2;
}

int Bar2()
{
  return Foo();
}

Without using static on Foo (or without using an anonymous namespace, which is preferred way by most C++ programmers), this example violates ODR and the results are undefined. You can test with Visual Studio the result of Bar1/Bar2 will depend on compiler settings - in Debug configuration both Bar1 and Bar2 will return the same value (inlining not used, one implementation selected randomly by the linker), in Release configuration each of them will return the intended value.

Answer 3

I may not be completely right about this, but as far as I know declaring a function static inline is the only way to make (or allow) the compiler to generate a machine code where the function really is not defined in the compiled code at all, and all you have is a direct substitution of the function call into a sequence of instructions, like it were just a regular procedure body, with no trace in the machine code of a procedure call relative to that function definition from the source code.

That is, only with static inline you can really substitute the use of a macro, inline by itself is not enough.

A simple Google search for "static inline" will show you compiler documentation pages that talk about it. I guess this should be enough to answer your question, and say, "no, it is not practically useless". Here is one example of a site discussing the use of inline, and specifically of static inline http://www.greenend.org.uk/rjk/tech/inline.html

Answer 4

If you talk about free functions (namespace scope), then your assumption is correct. static inline functions indeed don't have much value. So static inline is simply a static function, which automatically satisfies ODR and inline is redundant for ODR purpose.

However when we talk about member methods (class scope), the static inline function does have the value.
Once you declare a class method as inline, it's full body has to be visible to all translation units which includes that class.

Remember that static keyword has a different meaning when it comes for a class.
Edit: As you may know that static function inside a class doesn't have internal linkage, in other words a class cannot have different copies of its static method depending on the translation (.cpp) units.
But a free static function at namespace/global scope does have different copies per every translation unit.

e.g.

// file.h
static void foo () {}
struct A {
  static void foo () {}
};

// file1.cpp
#include"file.h"
void x1 ()
{
  foo();  // different function exclusive to file1.cpp
  A::foo();  // same function
}

// file2.cpp
#include"file.h"
void x2 ()
{
  foo();  // different function exclusive to file2.cpp
  A::foo();  // same function
}

Answer 5

I just read a man page for gcc and it specifically states the use of static inline with a compiler flag. In the case of the flag, it inlines the function and if it is also static and is inlined in every instance that it is called, then it gets rid of the function definition which will never be used in the created object file, thereby reducing the size of the generated code by that little bit.