As of Rust 1.21.0, Vec::splice
is available and allows inserting at any point, including fully prepending:
let mut vec = vec![1, 5];
let slice = &[2, 3, 4];
vec.splice(1..1, slice.iter().cloned());
println!("{:?}", vec); // [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
The docs state:
Note 4: This is optimal if:
- The tail (elements in the vector after range) is empty
- or
replace_with
yields fewer elements than range’s length
- or the lower bound of its
size_hint()
is exact.
In this case, the lower bound of the slice's iterator should be exact, so it should perform one memory move.
splice
is a bit more powerful in that it allows you to remove a range of values (the first argument), insert new values (the second argument), and optionally get the old values (the result of the call).
Replacing a set of items
let mut vec = vec![0, 1, 5];
let slice = &[2, 3, 4];
vec.splice(..2, slice.iter().cloned());
println!("{:?}", vec); // [2, 3, 4, 5]
Getting the previous values
let mut vec = vec![0, 1, 2, 3, 4];
let slice = &[9, 8, 7];
let old: Vec<_> = vec.splice(3.., slice.iter().cloned()).collect();
println!("{:?}", vec); // [0, 1, 2, 9, 8, 7]
println!("{:?}", old); // [3, 4]