The standard library contains a collection of std::num::NonZeroX types: integer types which cannot be zero. This crate extends this idea further by providing NonMinX/NonMaxX: integer types which cannot be their minimum/maximum value.

// Create a regular NonMinU32
let x = 123 as i32;
let y = NonMinI32::new(x).unwrap();
assert_eq!(y.get(), 123);

// -2147483648 is the minimum value for a 32-bit integer.
let z = NonMinI32::new(-2147483648);
assert_eq!(z, None);

Similar to NonZeroX types, these NonMinX/NonMaxX types allow for the niche filling optimization. This means that types such as Option<NonMinX>/Option<NonMaxX> takes up the same amount of space as X, while a regular Option<X> takes up twice the size of X due to the need of storing the variant tag.

// Option<u32> is larger than a regular u32
assert!(size_of::<Option<u32>>() == 2 * size_of::<u32>());

// Option<NonMinU32>/Option<NonMaxU32> is the same size as a regular u32.
assert!(size_of::<Option<NonMinU32>>() == size_of::<u32>());
assert!(size_of::<Option<NonMaxU32>>() == size_of::<u32>());

While this may seem like a micro-optimization, it becomes important when frequently passing an Option<X> around or when creating a large array of Option<X>.

// 1000 x u32 takes up 4000 bytes
assert!(size_of::<[u32; 1000]>() == 4000);

// 1000 x Option<u32> takes up 8000 bytes, ouch
assert!(size_of::<[Option<u32>; 1000]>() == 8000);

// 1000 x Option<NonMaxU32> takes up only 4000 bytes
assert!(size_of::<[Option<NonMaxU32>; 1000]>() == 4000);

Internally, these types work by wrapping the existing NonZeroX types and xor-ing with a mask when accessing the inner value. This means that there is the cost of a single xor instruction each time get is called.

The following types are supported

• i8: NonMinI8, NonMaxI8
• i16: NonMinI16, NonMaxI16
• i32: NonMinI32, NonMaxI32
• i64: NonMinI64, NonMaxI64
• i128: NonMinI128, NonMaxI128
• isize: NonMinIsize, NonMaxIsize
• u8: NonMaxU8
• u16: NonMaxU16
• u32: NonMaxU32
• u64: NonMaxU64
• u128: NonMaxU128
• usize: NonMaxUsize