Justin Pombrio

Rust Quick Reference

SharedRef MutableRef HeapOwned Sized Unsized
Raw *const T *mut T
Simple &T &mut T Box<T> T
Trait* &Trait &mut Trait Box<Trait> Trait
Array* &[T] &mut [T] Vec<T> [T; n] [T]
String* &str &mut str String str
Closure* Fn(T) -> U FnMut(T)->U FnOnce(T)->U fn(T)->U

(*): fat pointers: contain (ptr, len) or (ptr, vtable) or environment.

TRAIT USAGE
Value Semantics
 Clone .clone() makes a (usually deep) copy
 Copy Bitwise copy instead of moving.
 Drop Give specialized drop (i.e., destructor) behavior.
 Sized Size is statically known. (Automatically derived.)
Misc
 IntoIterator Allows use in for loops.
 Error For errors. Has a description and a cause.
 Default fn default(&self) -> Self;
Conversion
 Deref,DerefMut Overloads * and _._ and _._().
 AsRef,AsMut Allows explicit conversion. Useful for flexible funcs.
 Borrow,BorrowMut Like AsRef and AsMut, but must have same hash!
 ToOwned Inverse of Borrow.
 From,Into Owned conversions. Implement From; Into is automatic.
Closures
 Fn,FnMut,FnOnce Closure traits. Different than fn(T)->U func types.
Concurrency
 Send Can be safely sent by value to another thread.
 Sync Can be safely sent by reference to another thread.
TYPE USAGE
Collections
 HashMap Map from keys to values.
 HashSet Set of values.
 BinaryHeap Priority queue.
 VecDequeue Double ended queue.
Sharing
 Rc<T> Sharing when lifetime is statically unknown. Immutable.
 RefCell<T> Interior mutability via shared and mutable references.
 Cell<T> Owned interior mutability. fn update(&self, f: F) where F: FnOnce(T)->T
Concurrency
 Arc<T> Rc, but Send and Sync. Immutable.
 Mutex<T> Like RwLock, but deadlocks if there are ever two concurrent borrows.
 RwLock<T> RefCell, but Sync. Shared and mutable access.
 Sender,Receiver Channels. Multiple producer, single consumer.
 AtomicI32,etc. Atomic primitives. Concurrent mutable w/o data races.
SYNTAX MEANING
Comments
 /// TEXT #[doc = "TEXT"]
 //! TEXT #![doc = "TEXT"]
Method Calls
 str::to_string("hello") "hello".to_string(), but qualified by type.
 ToString::to_string("hello") "hello".to_string(), but qualified by trait.
Trait Bounds
 Trait1 + Trait2 Trait1 and Trait2
 ?Trait not necessarily Trait
 !Trait not Trait

LIFETIME RULES

At all times, all values are in one of three states:


I constructed this quick reference using “Programming Rust”, by Jim Blandy and Jason Orendorff.