new idiom: mem::replace

README.md

@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@ language.
 * [Iterating over an `Option`](idioms/option-iter.md)
 * TODO `Default` trait
 * [Pass variables to closure](idioms/pass-var-to-closure.md)
+* [`mem::replace(_)` to avoid needless clones](idioms/mem-replace.md)
 
 ### Design patterns
 

idioms/mem-replace.md

@@ -0,0 +1,83 @@
+# `mem::replace` to keep owned values in changed enums
+
+## Description
+
+Say we have a `&mut MyEnum` which has (at least) two variants,
+`A { name: String, x: u8 }` and `B { name: String }`. Now we want to change
+`MyEnum::A` to a `B` if `x` is zero, while keeping `MyEnum::B` intact.
+
+We can do this without cloning the `name`.
+
+## Example
+
+```rust
+use std::mem;
+
+fn a_to_b(e: &mut MyEnum) {
+    // we mutably borrow `e` here. This precludes us from changing it directly
+    // as in `*e = ...`, because the borrow checker won't allow it. Of course
+    // we could just take a reference to `name` and clone that, but why pay an
+    // extra allocation for something we already have?
+    let have_name = match *e {
+        MyEnum::A { ref mut name, x } if x == 0 => {
+            // this takes out our `name` and put in an empty String instead
+            // note that empty strings don't allocate
+            Some(mem::replace(name, "".to_string()))
+        }
+        // nothing to do in all other cases
+        _ => None
+    };
+    // the mutable borrow ends here, so we can change `e`
+    if let Some(name) = have_name { *e = MyEnum::B { name: name } }
+}
+```
+
+
+## Motivation
+
+When working with enums, we may want to change an enum value in place, perhaps
+to another variant. This is usually done in two phases to keep the borrow
+checker happy. In the first phase, we observe the existing value and look at
+its parts to decide what to do next. In the second phase we may conditionally
+change the value (as in the example above).
+
+The borrow checker won't allow us to take out `name` of the enum (because
+*something* must be there. We could of course `.clone()` name and put the clone
+into our `MyEnum::B`, but that would be an instance of the [Clone to satisfy
+the borrow checker] antipattern. Anyway, we can avoid the extra allocation by
+changing `e` with only a mutable borrow.
+
+`mem::replace` lets us swap out the value, replacing it with something else. In
+this case, we put in an empty `String`, which does not need to allocate. As a
+result, we get the original `name` *as an owned value*. We can wrap this in
+an `Option` or another enum that we can destructure in the next step to put the
+contained values into our mutably borrowed enum.
+
+## Advantages
+
+Look ma, no allocation! Also you may feel like Indiana Jones while doing it.
+
+## Disadvantages
+
+This gets a bit wordy. Getting it wrong repeatedly will make you hate the
+borrow checker. The compiler may fail to optimize away the double store,
+resulting in reduced performance as opposed to what you'd do in unsafe
+languages.
+
+## Discussion
+
+This pattern is only of interest in Rust. In GC'd languages, you'd take the
+reference to the value by default (and the GC would keep track of refs), and in
+other low-level languages like C you'd simply alias the pointer and fix things
+later.
+
+However, in Rust, we have to do a little more work to do this. An owned value
+may only have one owner, so to take it out, we need to put something back in –
+like Indiana Jones, replacing the artifact with a bag of sand.
+
+## See also
+
+This gets rid of the [Clone to satisfy the borrow checker] antipattern in a
+specific case.
+
+[Clone to satisfy the borrow checker](TODO: Hinges on PR #23)