Rc
Rc is Rust’s single-threaded reference-counted smart pointer for shared ownership of a value.
Code Like a Pro in Rust
Rc is Rust's single-threaded reference-counted smart-pointer type for shared ownership of a value.
- How it is used
- Provides single-threaded shared ownership for structures such as doubly linked lists.
- How deep it goes
- Explains count increments and decrements, then shows an Rc-based node representation; leaves raw-pointer implementation as an exercise.
- Examples
- Uses a doubly linked list whose node references are `Rc<RefCell<ListItem<T>>>`.
- What you can do after
- Apply it via `Rc` for single-threaded shared ownership, pairing it with `RefCell` when shared nodes need mutation.
Learn Rust in a Month of Lunches
Rc is Rust's reference-counting smart pointer type for shared ownership of data while tracking the number of active owning references.
- How it is used
- Shares owned data across structures or calls when unique ownership or full cloning is inconvenient.
- How deep it goes
- Explains construction, cloning, owner counts, weak references, cycles, and lifetime avoidance through worked examples.
- Examples
- Uses moved Strings, shared city names and histories, repeated function calls, owner counts, and nested city-country-world structs.
- What you can do after
- Apply it via std::rc::Rc to share data, inspect strong counts, and replace selected lifetime-heavy string references.
Related concepts
- Arcalternative to · Arc is Rust’s atomically reference-counted smart pointer for shared ownership of a value across threads.
- smart pointerkind of · A smart pointer is a pointer-like object that manages or mediates access to a referenced resource, often providing ownership, lifetime, or safety behavior.
- reference countinguses · Reference counting is a memory-management technique that tracks references to an object or value and can reclaim it when its reference count reaches zero.
- lifetime annotationaddresses · In Rust, a lifetime annotation is syntax that names or relates the validity lifetimes of references in types and function signatures.
- ownershipaddresses · Ownership is a programming-language model that assigns responsibility for controlling a value or resource, including its lifetime and eventual cleanup.
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