Consider a function that takes two references and returns a reference. Which of the two input reference lifetimes does the lifetime of the returned reference li

Consider a function that takes two references and returns a reference. Which of the two input reference lifetimes does the lifetime of the returned reference live in? Trick question, the function returns a static lifetime reference to a constant. Is this an anti-pattern? There are many situations where this would be the most efficient implementation. The compiler can frequently elide lifetimes, it only needs them when it's ambiguous. Sometimes you need to pass two references and return a reference.