I was trying to prepend to a vector in rust and found this closed question that was linked here, (despite this question being both prepend and insert AND efficiency. I think my answer would be better as an answer for that other, more precises question because I can’t attest to the efficiency), but the following code helped me prepend, (and the opposite.) [I’m sure that the other two answers are more efficient, but the way that I learn, I like having answers that can be cut-n-pasted with examples that demonstrate an application of the answer.]

pub trait Unshift<T> { fn unshift(&mut self, s: &[T]) -> (); }
pub trait UnshiftVec<T> { fn unshift_vec(&mut self, s: Vec<T>) -> (); }
pub trait UnshiftMemoryHog<T> { fn unshift_memory_hog(&mut self, s: Vec<T>) -> (); }
pub trait Shift<T> { fn shift(&mut self) -> (); }
pub trait ShiftN<T> { fn shift_n(&mut self, s: usize) -> (); }

impl<T: std::clone::Clone> ShiftN<T> for Vec<T> {
    fn shift_n(&mut self, s: usize) -> ()
    // where
    //    T: std::clone::Clone,
    {   
        self.drain(0..s);
    }
}

impl<T: std::clone::Clone> Shift<T> for Vec<T> {
    fn shift(&mut self) -> ()
    // where
    //    T: std::clone::Clone,
    {   
        self.drain(0..1);
    }
}

impl<T: std::clone::Clone> Unshift<T> for Vec<T> {
    fn unshift(&mut self, s: &[T]) -> ()
    // where
    //    T: std::clone::Clone,
    {   
        self.splice(0..0, s.to_vec());
    }
}
impl<T: std::clone::Clone> UnshiftVec<T> for Vec<T> {
    fn unshift_vec(&mut self, s: Vec<T>) -> ()
    where
        T: std::clone::Clone,
    {   
        self.splice(0..0, s);
    }
}

impl<T: std::clone::Clone> UnshiftMemoryHog<T> for Vec<T> {
    fn unshift_memory_hog(&mut self, s: Vec<T>) -> ()
    where
        T: std::clone::Clone,
    {
        let mut tmp: Vec<_> = s.to_owned();
        //let mut tmp: Vec<_> = s.clone(); // this also works for some data types
        /*
        let local_s: Vec<_> = self.clone(); // explicit clone()
        tmp.extend(local_s);                // to vec is possible
        */
        tmp.extend(self.clone());
        *self = tmp;
        //*self = (*tmp).to_vec(); // Just because it compiles, doesn't make it right.
    }
}

// this works for: v = unshift(v, &vec![8]);
// (If you don't want to impl Unshift for Vec<T>)

#[allow(dead_code)]
fn unshift_fn<T>(v: Vec<T>, s: &[T]) -> Vec<T>
where
    T: Clone,
{
    // create a mutable vec and fill it
    // with a clone of the array that we want
    // at the start of the vec.
    let mut tmp: Vec<_> = s.to_owned();
    // then we add the existing vector to the end
    // of the temporary vector.
    tmp.extend(v);
    // return the tmp vec that is identitcal
    // to unshift-ing the original vec.
    tmp
}

/*
    N.B. It is sometimes (often?) more memory efficient to reverse
    the vector and use push/pop, rather than splice/drain;
    Especially if you create your vectors in "stack order" to begin with.
*/

fn main() {
    let mut v: Vec<usize> = vec![1, 2, 3];
    println!("Before push:\t {:?}", v);
    v.push(0);
    println!("After push:\t {:?}", v);
    v.pop();
    println!("popped:\t\t {:?}", v);
    v.drain(0..1);
    println!("drain(0..1)\t {:?}", v);
    /*
        // We could use a function
    let c = v.clone();
    v = unshift_fn(c, &vec![0]);
    */
    v.splice(0..0, vec![0]);
    println!("splice(0..0, vec![0]) {:?}", v);
    v.shift_n(1);
    println!("shift\t\t {:?}", v);
    v.unshift_memory_hog(vec![8, 16, 31, 1]);
    println!("MEMORY guzzler unshift {:?}", v);
    //v.drain(0..3);
    v.drain(0..=2);
    println!("back to the start: {:?}", v);
    v.unshift_vec(vec![0]);
    println!("zerothed with unshift: {:?}", v);

    let mut w = vec![4, 5, 6];
    /*
    let prepend_this = &[1, 2, 3];
    w.unshift_vec(prepend_this.to_vec());
    */
    w.unshift(&[1, 2, 3]);

    assert_eq!(&w, &[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]);
    println!("{:?} == {:?}", &w, &[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]);
}