diff --git a/base/deprecated.jl b/base/deprecated.jl
index 41020dcb5fc62..ba0a5b90ae2d7 100644
--- a/base/deprecated.jl
+++ b/base/deprecated.jl
@@ -831,6 +831,9 @@ function convert(::Type{UpperTriangular}, A::Bidiagonal)
     end
 end
 
+# Deprecate three-arg SubArray since the constructor doesn't need the dims tuple
+@deprecate SubArray(parent::AbstractArray, indexes::Tuple, dims::Tuple) SubArray(parent, indexes)
+
 # Deprecate vectorized unary functions over sparse matrices in favor of compact broadcast syntax (#17265).
 for f in (:sin, :sinh, :sind, :asin, :asinh, :asind,
         :tan, :tanh, :tand, :atan, :atanh, :atand,
diff --git a/base/multidimensional.jl b/base/multidimensional.jl
index 3a3b155d8947b..7cdd7a1556f59 100644
--- a/base/multidimensional.jl
+++ b/base/multidimensional.jl
@@ -215,6 +215,16 @@ end
 end
 index_ndims() = ()
 
+# combined dimensionality of all indices
+# rather than returning N, it returns an NTuple{N,Bool} so the result is inferrable
+@inline index_dimsum(i1, I...) = (index_dimsum(I...)...)
+@inline index_dimsum(::Colon, I...) = (true, index_dimsum(I...)...)
+@inline index_dimsum(::AbstractArray{Bool}, I...) = (true, index_dimsum(I...)...)
+@inline function index_dimsum{_,N}(::AbstractArray{_,N}, I...)
+    (ntuple(x->true, Val{N})..., index_dimsum(I...)...)
+end
+index_dimsum() = ()
+
 # Recursively compute the lengths of a list of indices, without dropping scalars
 # These need to be inlined for more than 3 indexes
 # Trailing CartesianIndex{0}s and arrays thereof are strange when used as
diff --git a/base/subarray.jl b/base/subarray.jl
index 0aede224b8337..1a6b8d5c2e3bb 100644
--- a/base/subarray.jl
+++ b/base/subarray.jl
@@ -12,18 +12,22 @@ immutable SubArray{T,N,P,I,L} <: AbstractArray{T,N}
     offset1::Int       # for linear indexing and pointer, only valid when L==true
     stride1::Int       # used only for linear indexing
     function SubArray(parent, indexes, offset1, stride1)
+        @_inline_meta
         check_parent_index_match(parent, indexes)
         new(parent, indexes, offset1, stride1)
     end
 end
 # Compute the linear indexability of the indices, and combine it with the linear indexing of the parent
-function SubArray(parent::AbstractArray, indexes::Tuple, dims::Tuple)
-    SubArray(linearindexing(viewindexing(indexes), linearindexing(parent)), parent, indexes, dims)
+function SubArray(parent::AbstractArray, indexes::Tuple)
+    @_inline_meta
+    SubArray(linearindexing(viewindexing(indexes), linearindexing(parent)), parent, indexes, index_dimsum(indexes...))
 end
-function SubArray{P, I, N}(::LinearSlow, parent::P, indexes::I, dims::NTuple{N})
+function SubArray{P, I, N}(::LinearSlow, parent::P, indexes::I, ::NTuple{N})
+    @_inline_meta
     SubArray{eltype(P), N, P, I, false}(parent, indexes, 0, 0)
 end
-function SubArray{P, I, N}(::LinearFast, parent::P, indexes::I, dims::NTuple{N})
+function SubArray{P, I, N}(::LinearFast, parent::P, indexes::I, ::NTuple{N})
+    @_inline_meta
     # Compute the stride and offset
     stride1 = compute_stride1(parent, indexes)
     SubArray{eltype(P), N, P, I, true}(parent, indexes, compute_offset1(parent, stride1, indexes), stride1)
@@ -92,7 +96,7 @@ view(A::AbstractArray, I::Union{ViewIndex, AbstractCartesianIndex}...) = view(A,
 function unsafe_view(A::AbstractArray, I::ViewIndex...)
     @_inline_meta
     J = to_indexes(I...)
-    SubArray(A, J, map(unsafe_length, index_shape(A, J...)))
+    SubArray(A, J)
 end
 # When we take the view of a view, it's often possible to "reindex" the parent
 # view's indices such that we can "pop" the parent view and keep just one layer
@@ -103,7 +107,7 @@ end
 unsafe_view(V::SubArray, I::ViewIndex...) = (@_inline_meta; _maybe_reindex(V, to_indexes(I...)))
 _maybe_reindex(V, I) = (@_inline_meta; _maybe_reindex(V, I, I))
 _maybe_reindex{C<:AbstractCartesianIndex}(V, I, ::Tuple{AbstractArray{C}, Vararg{Any}}) =
-    (@_inline_meta; SubArray(V, I, map(unsafe_length, index_shape(V, I...))))
+    (@_inline_meta; SubArray(V, I))
 # But allow arrays of CartesianIndex{1}; they behave just like arrays of Ints
 _maybe_reindex{C<:AbstractCartesianIndex{1}}(V, I, A::Tuple{AbstractArray{C}, Vararg{Any}}) =
     (@_inline_meta; _maybe_reindex(V, I, tail(A)))
@@ -111,7 +115,7 @@ _maybe_reindex(V, I, A::Tuple{Any, Vararg{Any}}) = (@_inline_meta; _maybe_reinde
 function _maybe_reindex(V, I, ::Tuple{})
     @_inline_meta
     idxs = reindex(V, V.indexes, to_indexes(I...))
-    SubArray(V.parent, idxs, map(unsafe_length, (index_shape(V.parent, idxs...))))
+    SubArray(V.parent, idxs)
 end
 
 ## Re-indexing is the heart of a view, transforming A[i, j][x, y] to A[i[x], j[y]]
@@ -222,7 +226,7 @@ substrides(s, parent, dim, I::Tuple{Any, Vararg{Any}}) = throw(ArgumentError("st
 stride(V::SubArray, d::Integer) = d <= ndims(V) ? strides(V)[d] : strides(V)[end] * size(V)[end]
 
 compute_stride1{N}(parent::AbstractArray, I::NTuple{N}) =
-    compute_stride1(1, fill_to_length(indices(parent), OneTo(1), Val{N}), I)
+    (@_inline_meta; compute_stride1(1, fill_to_length(indices(parent), OneTo(1), Val{N}), I))
 compute_stride1(s, inds, I::Tuple{}) = s
 compute_stride1(s, inds, I::Tuple{Real, Vararg{Any}}) =
     (@_inline_meta; compute_stride1(s*unsafe_length(inds[1]), tail(inds), tail(I)))
@@ -252,11 +256,15 @@ end
 # If the result is one-dimensional and it's a Colon, then linear
 # indexing uses the indices along the given dimension. Otherwise
 # linear indexing always starts with 1.
-compute_offset1(parent, stride1::Integer, I::Tuple) = (@_inline_meta; compute_offset1(parent, stride1, find_extended_dims(I)..., I))
-compute_offset1(parent, stride1::Integer, dims::Tuple{Int}, inds::Tuple{Colon}, I::Tuple) = compute_linindex(parent, I) - stride1*first(indices(parent, dims[1]))  # index-preserving case
-compute_offset1(parent, stride1::Integer, dims, inds, I::Tuple) = compute_linindex(parent, I) - stride1  # linear indexing starts with 1
+compute_offset1(parent, stride1::Integer, I::Tuple) =
+    (@_inline_meta; compute_offset1(parent, stride1, find_extended_dims(I)..., I))
+compute_offset1(parent, stride1::Integer, dims::Tuple{Int}, inds::Tuple{Colon}, I::Tuple) =
+    (@_inline_meta; compute_linindex(parent, I) - stride1*first(indices(parent, dims[1])))  # index-preserving case
+compute_offset1(parent, stride1::Integer, dims, inds, I::Tuple) =
+    (@_inline_meta; compute_linindex(parent, I) - stride1)  # linear indexing starts with 1
 
 function compute_linindex{N}(parent, I::NTuple{N})
+    @_inline_meta
     IP = fill_to_length(indices(parent), OneTo(1), Val{N})
     compute_linindex(1, 1, IP, I)
 end
@@ -278,10 +286,13 @@ end
 compute_linindex(f, s, IP::Tuple, I::Tuple{}) = f
 
 find_extended_dims(I) = (@_inline_meta; _find_extended_dims((), (), 1, I...))
-_find_extended_dims(dims, inds, dim) = dims, inds
-_find_extended_dims(dims, inds, dim, ::Real, I...) = _find_extended_dims(dims, inds, dim+1, I...)
-_find_extended_dims(dims, inds, dim, i1::AbstractCartesianIndex, I...) = _find_extended_dims(dims, inds, dim, i1.I..., I...)
-_find_extended_dims(dims, inds, dim, i1, I...) = _find_extended_dims((dims..., dim), (inds..., i1), dim+1, I...)
+_find_extended_dims(dims, inds, dim) = (@_inline_meta; return (dims, inds))
+_find_extended_dims(dims, inds, dim, ::Real, I...) =
+    (@_inline_meta; _find_extended_dims(dims, inds, dim+1, I...))
+_find_extended_dims(dims, inds, dim, i1::AbstractCartesianIndex, I...) =
+    (@_inline_meta; _find_extended_dims(dims, inds, dim, i1.I..., I...))
+_find_extended_dims(dims, inds, dim, i1, I...) =
+    (@_inline_meta; _find_extended_dims((dims..., dim), (inds..., i1), dim+1, I...))
 
 unsafe_convert{T,N,P,I<:Tuple{Vararg{RangeIndex}}}(::Type{Ptr{T}}, V::SubArray{T,N,P,I}) =
     unsafe_convert(Ptr{T}, V.parent) + (first_index(V)-1)*sizeof(T)