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<ol class="chapter"><li class="expanded affix "><a href="title-page.html">The Rust Programming Language</a></li><li class="expanded affix "><a href="foreword.html">Foreword</a></li><li class="expanded affix "><a href="ch00-00-introduction.html">Introduction</a></li><li class="expanded "><a href="ch01-00-getting-started.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">1.</strong> Getting Started</a></li><li><ol class="section"><li class="expanded "><a href="ch01-01-installation.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">1.1.</strong> Installation</a></li><li class="expanded "><a href="ch01-02-hello-world.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">1.2.</strong> Hello, World!</a></li><li class="expanded "><a href="ch01-03-hello-cargo.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">1.3.</strong> Hello, Cargo!</a></li></ol></li><li class="expanded "><a href="ch02-00-guessing-game-tutorial.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">2.</strong> Programming a Guessing Game</a></li><li class="expanded "><a href="ch03-00-common-programming-concepts.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">3.</strong> Common Programming Concepts</a></li><li><ol class="section"><li class="expanded "><a href="ch03-01-variables-and-mutability.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">3.1.</strong> Variables and Mutability</a></li><li class="expanded "><a href="ch03-02-data-types.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">3.2.</strong> Data Types</a></li><li class="expanded "><a href="ch03-03-how-functions-work.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">3.3.</strong> Functions</a></li><li class="expanded "><a href="ch03-04-comments.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">3.4.</strong> Comments</a></li><li class="expanded "><a href="ch03-05-control-flow.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">3.5.</strong> Control Flow</a></li></ol></li><li class="expanded "><a href="ch04-00-understanding-ownership.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">4.</strong> Understanding Ownership</a></li><li><ol class="section"><li class="expanded "><a href="ch04-01-what-is-ownership.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">4.1.</strong> What is Ownership?</a></li><li class="expanded "><a href="ch04-02-references-and-borrowing.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">4.2.</strong> References and Borrowing</a></li><li class="expanded "><a href="ch04-03-slices.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">4.3.</strong> The Slice Type</a></li></ol></li><li class="expanded "><a href="ch05-00-structs.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">5.</strong> Using Structs to Structure Related Data</a></li><li><ol class="section"><li class="expanded "><a href="ch05-01-defining-structs.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">5.1.</strong> Defining and Instantiating Structs</a></li><li class="expanded "><a href="ch05-02-example-structs.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">5.2.</strong> An Example Program Using Structs</a></li><li class="expanded "><a href="ch05-03-method-syntax.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">5.3.</strong> Method Syntax</a></li></ol></li><li class="expanded "><a href="ch06-00-enums.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">6.</strong> Enums and Pattern Matching</a></li><li><ol class="section"><li class="expanded "><a href="ch06-01-defining-an-enum.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">6.1.</strong> Defining an Enum</a></li><li class="expanded "><a href="ch06-02-match.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">6.2.</strong> The match Control Flow Operator</a></li><li class="expanded "><a href="ch06-03-if-let.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">6.3.</strong> Concise Control Flow with if let</a></li></ol></li><li class="expanded "><a href="ch07-00-managing-growing-projects-with-packages-crates-and-modules.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">7.</strong> Managing Growing Projects with Packages, Crates, and Modules</a></li><li><ol class="section"><li class="expanded "><a href="ch07-01-packages-and-crates.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">7.1.</strong> Packages and Crates</a></li><li class="expanded "><a href="ch07-02-defining-modules-to-control-scope-and-privacy.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">7.2.</strong> Defining Modules to Control Scope and Privacy</a></li><li class="expanded "><a href="ch07-03-paths-for-referring-to-an-item-in-the-module-tree.html"><
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<main>
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<h2><a class="header" href="#using-boxt-to-point-to-data-on-the-heap" id="using-boxt-to-point-to-data-on-the-heap">Using <code>Box<T></code> to Point to Data on the Heap</a></h2>
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<p>The most straightforward smart pointer is a <em>box</em>, whose type is written
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<code>Box<T></code>. Boxes allow you to store data on the heap rather than the stack. What
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remains on the stack is the pointer to the heap data. Refer to Chapter 4 to
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review the difference between the stack and the heap.</p>
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<p>Boxes don’t have performance overhead, other than storing their data on the
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heap instead of on the stack. But they don’t have many extra capabilities
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either. You’ll use them most often in these situations:</p>
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<ul>
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<li>When you have a type whose size can’t be known at compile time and you want
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to use a value of that type in a context that requires an exact size</li>
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<li>When you have a large amount of data and you want to transfer ownership but
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ensure the data won’t be copied when you do so</li>
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<li>When you want to own a value and you care only that it’s a type that
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implements a particular trait rather than being of a specific type</li>
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</ul>
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<p>We’ll demonstrate the first situation in the <a href="#enabling-recursive-types-with-boxes">“Enabling Recursive Types with
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Boxes”</a><!-- ignore --> section. In the
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second case, transferring ownership of a large amount of data can take a long
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time because the data is copied around on the stack. To improve performance in
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this situation, we can store the large amount of data on the heap in a box.
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Then, only the small amount of pointer data is copied around on the stack,
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while the data it references stays in one place on the heap. The third case is
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known as a <em>trait object</em>, and Chapter 17 devotes an entire section, <a href="ch17-02-trait-objects.html#using-trait-objects-that-allow-for-values-of-different-types">“Using
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Trait Objects That Allow for Values of Different Types,”</a><!--
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ignore --> just to that topic. So what you learn here you’ll apply again in
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Chapter 17!</p>
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<h3><a class="header" href="#using-a-boxt-to-store-data-on-the-heap" id="using-a-boxt-to-store-data-on-the-heap">Using a <code>Box<T></code> to Store Data on the Heap</a></h3>
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<p>Before we discuss this use case for <code>Box<T></code>, we’ll cover the syntax and how to
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interact with values stored within a <code>Box<T></code>.</p>
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<p>Listing 15-1 shows how to use a box to store an <code>i32</code> value on the heap:</p>
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<p><span class="filename">Filename: src/main.rs</span></p>
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<pre><pre class="playpen"><code class="language-rust">fn main() {
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let b = Box::new(5);
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println!("b = {}", b);
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}
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</code></pre></pre>
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<p><span class="caption">Listing 15-1: Storing an <code>i32</code> value on the heap using a
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box</span></p>
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<p>We define the variable <code>b</code> to have the value of a <code>Box</code> that points to the
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value <code>5</code>, which is allocated on the heap. This program will print <code>b = 5</code>; in
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this case, we can access the data in the box similar to how we would if this
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data were on the stack. Just like any owned value, when a box goes out of
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scope, as <code>b</code> does at the end of <code>main</code>, it will be deallocated. The
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deallocation happens for the box (stored on the stack) and the data it points
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to (stored on the heap).</p>
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<p>Putting a single value on the heap isn’t very useful, so you won’t use boxes by
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themselves in this way very often. Having values like a single <code>i32</code> on the
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stack, where they’re stored by default, is more appropriate in the majority of
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situations. Let’s look at a case where boxes allow us to define types that we
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wouldn’t be allowed to if we didn’t have boxes.</p>
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<h3><a class="header" href="#enabling-recursive-types-with-boxes" id="enabling-recursive-types-with-boxes">Enabling Recursive Types with Boxes</a></h3>
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<p>At compile time, Rust needs to know how much space a type takes up. One type
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whose size can’t be known at compile time is a <em>recursive type</em>, where a value
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can have as part of itself another value of the same type. Because this nesting
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of values could theoretically continue infinitely, Rust doesn’t know how much
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space a value of a recursive type needs. However, boxes have a known size, so
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by inserting a box in a recursive type definition, you can have recursive types.</p>
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<p>Let’s explore the <em>cons list</em>, which is a data type common in functional
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programming languages, as an example of a recursive type. The cons list type
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we’ll define is straightforward except for the recursion; therefore, the
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concepts in the example we’ll work with will be useful any time you get into
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more complex situations involving recursive types.</p>
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<h4><a class="header" href="#more-information-about-the-cons-list" id="more-information-about-the-cons-list">More Information About the Cons List</a></h4>
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<p>A <em>cons list</em> is a data structure that comes from the Lisp programming language
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and its dialects. In Lisp, the <code>cons</code> function (short for “construct function”)
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constructs a new pair from its two arguments, which usually are a single value
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and another pair. These pairs containing pairs form a list.</p>
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<p>The cons function concept has made its way into more general functional
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programming jargon: “to cons <em>x</em> onto <em>y</em>” informally means to construct a new
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container instance by putting the element <em>x</em> at the start of this new
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container, followed by the container <em>y</em>.</p>
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<p>Each item in a cons list contains two elements: the value of the current item
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and the next item. The last item in the list contains only a value called <code>Nil</code>
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without a next item. A cons list is produced by recursively calling the <code>cons</code>
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function. The canonical name to denote the base case of the recursion is <code>Nil</code>.
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Note that this is not the same as the “null” or “nil” concept in Chapter 6,
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which is an invalid or absent value.</p>
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<p>Although functional programming languages use cons lists frequently, the cons
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list isn’t a commonly used data structure in Rust. Most of the time when you
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have a list of items in Rust, <code>Vec<T></code> is a better choice to use. Other, more
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complex recursive data types <em>are</em> useful in various situations, but by
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starting with the cons list, we can explore how boxes let us define a recursive
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data type without much distraction.</p>
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<p>Listing 15-2 contains an enum definition for a cons list. Note that this code
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won’t compile yet because the <code>List</code> type doesn’t have a known size, which
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we’ll demonstrate.</p>
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<p><span class="filename">Filename: src/main.rs</span></p>
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<pre><code class="language-rust ignore does_not_compile">enum List {
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Cons(i32, List),
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Nil,
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}
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</code></pre>
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<p><span class="caption">Listing 15-2: The first attempt at defining an enum to
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represent a cons list data structure of <code>i32</code> values</span></p>
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<blockquote>
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<p>Note: We’re implementing a cons list that holds only <code>i32</code> values for the
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purposes of this example. We could have implemented it using generics, as we
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discussed in Chapter 10, to define a cons list type that could store values of
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any type.</p>
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</blockquote>
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<p>Using the <code>List</code> type to store the list <code>1, 2, 3</code> would look like the code in
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Listing 15-3:</p>
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<p><span class="filename">Filename: src/main.rs</span></p>
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<pre><code class="language-rust ignore does_not_compile">use crate::List::{Cons, Nil};
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fn main() {
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let list = Cons(1, Cons(2, Cons(3, Nil)));
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}
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</code></pre>
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<p><span class="caption">Listing 15-3: Using the <code>List</code> enum to store the list <code>1, 2, 3</code></span></p>
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|
<p>The first <code>Cons</code> value holds <code>1</code> and another <code>List</code> value. This <code>List</code> value is
|
|||
|
another <code>Cons</code> value that holds <code>2</code> and another <code>List</code> value. This <code>List</code> value
|
|||
|
is one more <code>Cons</code> value that holds <code>3</code> and a <code>List</code> value, which is finally
|
|||
|
<code>Nil</code>, the non-recursive variant that signals the end of the list.</p>
|
|||
|
<p>If we try to compile the code in Listing 15-3, we get the error shown in
|
|||
|
Listing 15-4:</p>
|
|||
|
<pre><code class="language-text">error[E0072]: recursive type `List` has infinite size
|
|||
|
--> src/main.rs:1:1
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
1 | enum List {
|
|||
|
| ^^^^^^^^^ recursive type has infinite size
|
|||
|
2 | Cons(i32, List),
|
|||
|
| ----- recursive without indirection
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
= help: insert indirection (e.g., a `Box`, `Rc`, or `&`) at some point to
|
|||
|
make `List` representable
|
|||
|
</code></pre>
|
|||
|
<p><span class="caption">Listing 15-4: The error we get when attempting to define
|
|||
|
a recursive enum</span></p>
|
|||
|
<p>The error shows this type “has infinite size.” The reason is that we’ve defined
|
|||
|
<code>List</code> with a variant that is recursive: it holds another value of itself
|
|||
|
directly. As a result, Rust can’t figure out how much space it needs to store a
|
|||
|
<code>List</code> value. Let’s break down why we get this error a bit. First, let’s look
|
|||
|
at how Rust decides how much space it needs to store a value of a non-recursive
|
|||
|
type.</p>
|
|||
|
<h4><a class="header" href="#computing-the-size-of-a-non-recursive-type" id="computing-the-size-of-a-non-recursive-type">Computing the Size of a Non-Recursive Type</a></h4>
|
|||
|
<p>Recall the <code>Message</code> enum we defined in Listing 6-2 when we discussed enum
|
|||
|
definitions in Chapter 6:</p>
|
|||
|
<pre><pre class="playpen"><code class="language-rust">
|
|||
|
<span class="boring">#![allow(unused_variables)]
|
|||
|
</span><span class="boring">fn main() {
|
|||
|
</span>enum Message {
|
|||
|
Quit,
|
|||
|
Move { x: i32, y: i32 },
|
|||
|
Write(String),
|
|||
|
ChangeColor(i32, i32, i32),
|
|||
|
}
|
|||
|
<span class="boring">}
|
|||
|
</span></code></pre></pre>
|
|||
|
<p>To determine how much space to allocate for a <code>Message</code> value, Rust goes
|
|||
|
through each of the variants to see which variant needs the most space. Rust
|
|||
|
sees that <code>Message::Quit</code> doesn’t need any space, <code>Message::Move</code> needs enough
|
|||
|
space to store two <code>i32</code> values, and so forth. Because only one variant will be
|
|||
|
used, the most space a <code>Message</code> value will need is the space it would take to
|
|||
|
store the largest of its variants.</p>
|
|||
|
<p>Contrast this with what happens when Rust tries to determine how much space a
|
|||
|
recursive type like the <code>List</code> enum in Listing 15-2 needs. The compiler starts
|
|||
|
by looking at the <code>Cons</code> variant, which holds a value of type <code>i32</code> and a value
|
|||
|
of type <code>List</code>. Therefore, <code>Cons</code> needs an amount of space equal to the size of
|
|||
|
an <code>i32</code> plus the size of a <code>List</code>. To figure out how much memory the <code>List</code>
|
|||
|
type needs, the compiler looks at the variants, starting with the <code>Cons</code>
|
|||
|
variant. The <code>Cons</code> variant holds a value of type <code>i32</code> and a value of type
|
|||
|
<code>List</code>, and this process continues infinitely, as shown in Figure 15-1.</p>
|
|||
|
<img alt="An infinite Cons list" src="img/trpl15-01.svg" class="center" style="width: 50%;" />
|
|||
|
<p><span class="caption">Figure 15-1: An infinite <code>List</code> consisting of infinite
|
|||
|
<code>Cons</code> variants</span></p>
|
|||
|
<h4><a class="header" href="#using-boxt-to-get-a-recursive-type-with-a-known-size" id="using-boxt-to-get-a-recursive-type-with-a-known-size">Using <code>Box<T></code> to Get a Recursive Type with a Known Size</a></h4>
|
|||
|
<p>Rust can’t figure out how much space to allocate for recursively defined types,
|
|||
|
so the compiler gives the error in Listing 15-4. But the error does include
|
|||
|
this helpful suggestion:</p>
|
|||
|
<pre><code class="language-text"> = help: insert indirection (e.g., a `Box`, `Rc`, or `&`) at some point to
|
|||
|
make `List` representable
|
|||
|
</code></pre>
|
|||
|
<p>In this suggestion, “indirection” means that instead of storing a value
|
|||
|
directly, we’ll change the data structure to store the value indirectly by
|
|||
|
storing a pointer to the value instead.</p>
|
|||
|
<p>Because a <code>Box<T></code> is a pointer, Rust always knows how much space a <code>Box<T></code>
|
|||
|
needs: a pointer’s size doesn’t change based on the amount of data it’s
|
|||
|
pointing to. This means we can put a <code>Box<T></code> inside the <code>Cons</code> variant instead
|
|||
|
of another <code>List</code> value directly. The <code>Box<T></code> will point to the next <code>List</code>
|
|||
|
value that will be on the heap rather than inside the <code>Cons</code> variant.
|
|||
|
Conceptually, we still have a list, created with lists “holding” other lists,
|
|||
|
but this implementation is now more like placing the items next to one another
|
|||
|
rather than inside one another.</p>
|
|||
|
<p>We can change the definition of the <code>List</code> enum in Listing 15-2 and the usage
|
|||
|
of the <code>List</code> in Listing 15-3 to the code in Listing 15-5, which will compile:</p>
|
|||
|
<p><span class="filename">Filename: src/main.rs</span></p>
|
|||
|
<pre><pre class="playpen"><code class="language-rust">enum List {
|
|||
|
Cons(i32, Box<List>),
|
|||
|
Nil,
|
|||
|
}
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
use crate::List::{Cons, Nil};
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
fn main() {
|
|||
|
let list = Cons(1,
|
|||
|
Box::new(Cons(2,
|
|||
|
Box::new(Cons(3,
|
|||
|
Box::new(Nil))))));
|
|||
|
}
|
|||
|
</code></pre></pre>
|
|||
|
<p><span class="caption">Listing 15-5: Definition of <code>List</code> that uses <code>Box<T></code> in
|
|||
|
order to have a known size</span></p>
|
|||
|
<p>The <code>Cons</code> variant will need the size of an <code>i32</code> plus the space to store the
|
|||
|
box’s pointer data. The <code>Nil</code> variant stores no values, so it needs less space
|
|||
|
than the <code>Cons</code> variant. We now know that any <code>List</code> value will take up the
|
|||
|
size of an <code>i32</code> plus the size of a box’s pointer data. By using a box, we’ve
|
|||
|
broken the infinite, recursive chain, so the compiler can figure out the size
|
|||
|
it needs to store a <code>List</code> value. Figure 15-2 shows what the <code>Cons</code> variant
|
|||
|
looks like now.</p>
|
|||
|
<img alt="A finite Cons list" src="img/trpl15-02.svg" class="center" />
|
|||
|
<p><span class="caption">Figure 15-2: A <code>List</code> that is not infinitely sized
|
|||
|
because <code>Cons</code> holds a <code>Box</code></span></p>
|
|||
|
<p>Boxes provide only the indirection and heap allocation; they don’t have any
|
|||
|
other special capabilities, like those we’ll see with the other smart pointer
|
|||
|
types. They also don’t have any performance overhead that these special
|
|||
|
capabilities incur, so they can be useful in cases like the cons list where the
|
|||
|
indirection is the only feature we need. We’ll look at more use cases for boxes
|
|||
|
in Chapter 17, too.</p>
|
|||
|
<p>The <code>Box<T></code> type is a smart pointer because it implements the <code>Deref</code> trait,
|
|||
|
which allows <code>Box<T></code> values to be treated like references. When a <code>Box<T></code>
|
|||
|
value goes out of scope, the heap data that the box is pointing to is cleaned
|
|||
|
up as well because of the <code>Drop</code> trait implementation. Let’s explore these two
|
|||
|
traits in more detail. These two traits will be even more important to the
|
|||
|
functionality provided by the other smart pointer types we’ll discuss in the
|
|||
|
rest of this chapter.</p>
|
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