Writing self-referential structs in Rust is a complete nightmare; the borrow checker won't let you do it natively. Testing three common workarounds for this pattern. Which approach do you actually like? Version 1: Unsafe & Raw Pointers No dependencies; total control but requires manual safety audits. struct SelfRef { data: String, slice: *const str, _pin: std::marker::PhantomPinned, } Version 2: Index Offsets 100% safe code; avoids lifetime issues entirely by storing ranges. struct IndexRef { data: String, slice_range: std::ops::Range , } Version 3: Macro Crates (ouroboros) Clean syntax; abstracts the pain away but introduces a heavy dependency. #[ouroboros::self_referencing] struct MacroRef { data: String, #[borrowed] slice: &str, } Offsets feel like a workaround that loses type expressiveness; raw pointers are an open invitation for UB. Is using a macro crate the only sane path forward; or do you just refactor the data flow to avoid this entirely? Now tell me which one is for you?…