Understanding Rust's Cow Smart Pointer Through Source Code Analysis
Rust's Cow (Copy-on-Write) is a smart pointer that enables lazy cloning. It's useful when data might be mutated or ownership might change, but you want to avoid unnecessary copies—ideal for read-heavy, write-rare scenarios.
pub enum Cow<'a, B: ?Sized + 'a>
where
B: ToOwned,
{
/// Borrowed data.
Borrowed(&'a B),
/// Own ...
Posted on Sun, 16 Aug 2026 16:40:05 +0000 by vadercole