Macro transmute

macro_rules! transmute {
    (#![allow(shrink)] $e:expr) => { ... };
    ($e:expr) => { ... };
}

Safely transmutes a value of one type to a value of another type of the same size.

This macro behaves like an invocation of this function:

const fn transmute<Src, Dst>(src: Src) -> Dst
where
    Src: IntoBytes,
    Dst: FromBytes,
    size_of::<Src>() == size_of::<Dst>(),
{
    ...
}

However, unlike a function, this macro can only be invoked when the types of Src and Dst are completely concrete. The types Src and Dst are inferred from the calling context; they cannot be explicitly specified in the macro invocation.

Note that the Src produced by the expression $e will not be dropped. Semantically, its bits will be copied into a new value of type Dst, the original Src will be forgotten, and the value of type Dst will be returned.

#![allow(shrink)]

If #![allow(shrink)] is provided, transmute! additionally supports transmutations that shrink the size of the value; e.g.:

let u: u32 = transmute!(#![allow(shrink)] 0u64);
assert_eq!(u, 0u32);

Examples

let one_dimensional: [u8; 8] = [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7];

let two_dimensional: [[u8; 4]; 2] = transmute!(one_dimensional);

assert_eq!(two_dimensional, [[0, 1, 2, 3], [4, 5, 6, 7]]);

Use in const contexts

This macro can be invoked in const contexts.