[Crates.io](https://crates.io/crates/refcon) – [Documentation](https://docs.rs/refcon/latest/refcon/)
# What is Refcon?
This crate provides the `Refcon` enum, which is used to wrap either a
concrete instance of a type `T`, or a reference to one.
By implementing `AsRef<T>`, `Refcon` lets either variant seamlessly
behave as a reference to `T`.
```rust
const ZERO = ABigStruct::costly_initializer();
let v: Vec<ABigStruct> = (0..10_000)
.map(|i|
if i < 1_000 {
Refcon::from(&ZERO)
} else {
Refcon::from(ABigStruct::new(i))
})
.collect();
// [...]
for x in {
x.do_something();
}
```
## When **not** to use Refcon
- `T` is smaller than two machine words – you should just copy everything
in this case anyways;
- you can not afford/do not want to pay for the double indirection price
while accessing the inner value;
- you do not want to pay for the price of the additional memory copy while
constructing the concrete variant;
## When to use Refcon
- You want to mix values & references: _e.g._ if you have a vector
containing either reference to pre-computed values or ad-hoc ones or if an
iterator in a trait may iterate over immediate or reference values
depending on the implementation.