How to #define __forceinline inline?

Question

I have some Microsoft code (XLCALL.CPP) which I am trying to compile with CodeBlocks/MinGW.
At this line I get a compile time error:

__forceinline void FetchExcel12EntryPt(void)

This is the error message I get:

XLCALL.CPP|36|error: expected constructor, destructor, or type conversion before 'void'

This error is expected, because __forceinline is a Microsoft specific addition to the language, not recognized by GCC.

So, to get things compile, I try to add thiese defines in CodeBlocks (Project Build Options/Compiler Settings/#defines):

#define __forceinline inline
#define __forceinline 

However I still get the same error.

If in the dialog I do not specify the #define preprocessor command (i.e.: __forceinline inline), this is what I get:

XLCALL.CPP|36|error: expected unqualified-id before numeric constant

Is there a way to compile such a piece of code, without using Visual C++?

Answer 1

The syntax is __forceinline=inline, as you've noted in the comments, because these settings get turned into -D options to GCC.

Note that inline is a strong hint to GCC that the function should be inlined, but does not guarantee it. The GCC equivalent of __forceinline is the always_inline attribute - e.g. this code:

#define __forceinline __attribute__((always_inline))

or equivalently this setting:

__forceinline="__attribute__((always_inline))"

(But this might well be unnecessary: if there was some particularly good reason for forcing this function to be inlined when compiling with MSVC, that reason may well not be valid when using a completely different compiler!)