<!DOCTYPE HTML> <html lang="en" class="sidebar-visible no-js light"> <head> <!-- Book generated using mdBook --> <meta charset="UTF-8"> <title>Macros - The Rust Programming Language</title> <meta content="text/html; charset=utf-8" http-equiv="Content-Type"> <meta name="description" content=""> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> <meta name="theme-color" content="#ffffff" /> <link rel="shortcut icon" href="favicon.png"> <link rel="stylesheet" href="css/variables.css"> <link rel="stylesheet" href="css/general.css"> <link rel="stylesheet" href="css/chrome.css"> <link rel="stylesheet" href="css/print.css" media="print"> <!-- Fonts --> <link rel="stylesheet" href="FontAwesome/css/font-awesome.css"> <link href="googleFonts/css.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"> <!-- Highlight.js Stylesheets --> <link rel="stylesheet" href="highlight.css"> <link rel="stylesheet" href="tomorrow-night.css"> <link rel="stylesheet" href="ayu-highlight.css"> <!-- Custom theme stylesheets --> <link rel="stylesheet" href="ferris.css"> <link rel="stylesheet" href="theme/2018-edition.css"> </head> <body> <!-- Provide site root to javascript --> <script type="text/javascript"> var path_to_root = ""; var default_theme = window.matchMedia("(prefers-color-scheme: dark)").matches ? "light" : "light"; </script> <!-- Work around some values being stored in localStorage wrapped in quotes --> <script type="text/javascript"> try { var theme = localStorage.getItem('mdbook-theme'); var sidebar = localStorage.getItem('mdbook-sidebar'); if (theme.startsWith('"') && theme.endsWith('"')) { localStorage.setItem('mdbook-theme', theme.slice(1, theme.length - 1)); } if (sidebar.startsWith('"') && sidebar.endsWith('"')) { localStorage.setItem('mdbook-sidebar', sidebar.slice(1, sidebar.length - 1)); } } catch (e) { } </script> <!-- Set the theme before any content is loaded, prevents flash --> <script type="text/javascript"> var theme; try { theme = localStorage.getItem('mdbook-theme'); } catch(e) { } if (theme === null || theme === undefined) { theme = default_theme; } var html = document.querySelector('html'); html.classList.remove('no-js') html.classList.remove('light') html.classList.add(theme); html.classList.add('js'); </script> <!-- Hide / unhide sidebar before it is displayed --> <script type="text/javascript"> var html = document.querySelector('html'); var sidebar = 'hidden'; if (document.body.clientWidth >= 1080) { try { sidebar = localStorage.getItem('mdbook-sidebar'); } catch(e) { } sidebar = sidebar || 'visible'; } html.classList.remove('sidebar-visible'); html.classList.add("sidebar-" + sidebar); </script> <nav id="sidebar" class="sidebar" aria-label="Table of contents"> <div id="sidebar-scrollbox" class="sidebar-scrollbox"> <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"><strong aria-hidden="true">7.3.</strong> Paths for Referring to an Item in the Module Tree</a></li><li class="expanded "><a href="ch07-04-bringing-paths-into-scope-with-the-use-keyword.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">7.4.</strong> Bringing Paths Into Scope with the use Keyword</a></li><li class="expanded "><a href="ch07-05-separating-modules-into-different-files.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">7.5.</strong> Separating Modules into Different Files</a></li></ol></li><li class="expanded "><a href="ch08-00-common-collections.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">8.</strong> Common Collections</a></li><li><ol class="section"><li class="expanded "><a href="ch08-01-vectors.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">8.1.</strong> Storing Lists of Values with Vectors</a></li><li class="expanded "><a href="ch08-02-strings.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">8.2.</strong> Storing UTF-8 Encoded Text with Strings</a></li><li class="expanded "><a href="ch08-03-hash-maps.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">8.3.</strong> Storing Keys with Associated Values in Hash Maps</a></li></ol></li><li class="expanded "><a href="ch09-00-error-handling.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">9.</strong> Error Handling</a></li><li><ol class="section"><li class="expanded "><a href="ch09-01-unrecoverable-errors-with-panic.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">9.1.</strong> Unrecoverable Errors with panic!</a></li><li class="expanded "><a href="ch09-02-recoverable-errors-with-result.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">9.2.</strong> Recoverable Errors with Result</a></li><li class="expanded "><a href="ch09-03-to-panic-or-not-to-panic.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">9.3.</strong> To panic! or Not To panic!</a></li></ol></li><li class="expanded "><a href="ch10-00-generics.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">10.</strong> Generic Types, Traits, and Lifetimes</a></li><li><ol class="section"><li class="expanded "><a href="ch10-01-syntax.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">10.1.</strong> Generic Data Types</a></li><li class="expanded "><a href="ch10-02-traits.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">10.2.</strong> Traits: Defining Shared Behavior</a></li><li class="expanded "><a href="ch10-03-lifetime-syntax.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">10.3.</strong> Validating References with Lifetimes</a></li></ol></li><li class="expanded "><a href="ch11-00-testing.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">11.</strong> Writing Automated Tests</a></li><li><ol class="section"><li class="expanded "><a href="ch11-01-writing-tests.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">11.1.</strong> How to Write Tests</a></li><li class="expanded "><a href="ch11-02-running-tests.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">11.2.</strong> Controlling How Tests Are Run</a></li><li class="expanded "><a href="ch11-03-test-organization.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">11.3.</strong> Test Organization</a></li></ol></li><li class="expanded "><a href="ch12-00-an-io-project.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">12.</strong> An I/O Project: Building a Command Line Program</a></li><li><ol class="section"><li class="expanded "><a href="ch12-01-accepting-command-line-arguments.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">12.1.</strong> Accepting Command Line Arguments</a></li><li class="expanded "><a href="ch12-02-reading-a-file.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">12.2.</strong> Reading a File</a></li><li class="expanded "><a href="ch12-03-improving-error-handling-and-modularity.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">12.3.</strong> Refactoring to Improve Modularity and Error Handling</a></li><li class="expanded "><a href="ch12-04-testing-the-librarys-functionality.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">12.4.</strong> Developing the Library’s Functionality with Test Driven Development</a></li><li class="expanded "><a href="ch12-05-working-with-environment-variables.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">12.5.</strong> Working with Environment Variables</a></li><li class="expanded "><a href="ch12-06-writing-to-stderr-instead-of-stdout.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">12.6.</strong> Writing Error Messages to Standard Error Instead of Standard Output</a></li></ol></li><li class="expanded "><a href="ch13-00-functional-features.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">13.</strong> Functional Language Features: Iterators and Closures</a></li><li><ol class="section"><li class="expanded "><a href="ch13-01-closures.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">13.1.</strong> Closures: Anonymous Functions that Can Capture Their Environment</a></li><li class="expanded "><a href="ch13-02-iterators.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">13.2.</strong> Processing a Series of Items with Iterators</a></li><li class="expanded "><a href="ch13-03-improving-our-io-project.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">13.3.</strong> Improving Our I/O Project</a></li><li class="expanded "><a href="ch13-04-performance.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">13.4.</strong> Comparing Performance: Loops vs. Iterators</a></li></ol></li><li class="expanded "><a href="ch14-00-more-about-cargo.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">14.</strong> More about Cargo and Crates.io</a></li><li><ol class="section"><li class="expanded "><a href="ch14-01-release-profiles.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">14.1.</strong> Customizing Builds with Release Profiles</a></li><li class="expanded "><a href="ch14-02-publishing-to-crates-io.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">14.2.</strong> Publishing a Crate to Crates.io</a></li><li class="expanded "><a href="ch14-03-cargo-workspaces.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">14.3.</strong> Cargo Workspaces</a></li><li class="expanded "><a href="ch14-04-installing-binaries.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">14.4.</strong> Installing Binaries from Crates.io with cargo install</a></li><li class="expanded "><a href="ch14-05-extending-cargo.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">14.5.</strong> Extending Cargo with Custom Commands</a></li></ol></li><li class="expanded "><a href="ch15-00-smart-pointers.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">15.</strong> Smart Pointers</a></li><li><ol class="section"><li class="expanded "><a href="ch15-01-box.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">15.1.</strong> Using Box<T> to Point to Data on the Heap</a></li><li class="expanded "><a href="ch15-02-deref.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">15.2.</strong> Treating Smart Pointers Like Regular References with the Deref Trait</a></li><li class="expanded "><a href="ch15-03-drop.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">15.3.</strong> Running Code on Cleanup with the Drop Trait</a></li><li class="expanded "><a href="ch15-04-rc.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">15.4.</strong> Rc<T>, the Reference Counted Smart Pointer</a></li><li class="expanded "><a href="ch15-05-interior-mutability.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">15.5.</strong> RefCell<T> and the Interior Mutability Pattern</a></li><li class="expanded "><a href="ch15-06-reference-cycles.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">15.6.</strong> Reference Cycles Can Leak Memory</a></li></ol></li><li class="expanded "><a href="ch16-00-concurrency.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">16.</strong> Fearless Concurrency</a></li><li><ol class="section"><li class="expanded "><a href="ch16-01-threads.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">16.1.</strong> Using Threads to Run Code Simultaneously</a></li><li class="expanded "><a href="ch16-02-message-passing.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">16.2.</strong> Using Message Passing to Transfer Data Between Threads</a></li><li class="expanded "><a href="ch16-03-shared-state.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">16.3.</strong> Shared-State Concurrency</a></li><li class="expanded "><a href="ch16-04-extensible-concurrency-sync-and-send.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">16.4.</strong> Extensible Concurrency with the Sync and Send Traits</a></li></ol></li><li class="expanded "><a href="ch17-00-oop.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">17.</strong> Object Oriented Programming Features of Rust</a></li><li><ol class="section"><li class="expanded "><a href="ch17-01-what-is-oo.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">17.1.</strong> Characteristics of Object-Oriented Languages</a></li><li class="expanded "><a href="ch17-02-trait-objects.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">17.2.</strong> Using Trait Objects That Allow for Values of Different Types</a></li><li class="expanded "><a href="ch17-03-oo-design-patterns.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">17.3.</strong> Implementing an Object-Oriented Design Pattern</a></li></ol></li><li class="expanded "><a href="ch18-00-patterns.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">18.</strong> Patterns and Matching</a></li><li><ol class="section"><li class="expanded "><a href="ch18-01-all-the-places-for-patterns.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">18.1.</strong> All the Places Patterns Can Be Used</a></li><li class="expanded "><a href="ch18-02-refutability.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">18.2.</strong> Refutability: Whether a Pattern Might Fail to Match</a></li><li class="expanded "><a href="ch18-03-pattern-syntax.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">18.3.</strong> Pattern Syntax</a></li></ol></li><li class="expanded "><a href="ch19-00-advanced-features.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">19.</strong> Advanced Features</a></li><li><ol class="section"><li class="expanded "><a href="ch19-01-unsafe-rust.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">19.1.</strong> Unsafe Rust</a></li><li class="expanded "><a href="ch19-03-advanced-traits.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">19.2.</strong> Advanced Traits</a></li><li class="expanded "><a href="ch19-04-advanced-types.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">19.3.</strong> Advanced Types</a></li><li class="expanded "><a href="ch19-05-advanced-functions-and-closures.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">19.4.</strong> Advanced Functions and Closures</a></li><li class="expanded "><a href="ch19-06-macros.html" class="active"><strong aria-hidden="true">19.5.</strong> Macros</a></li></ol></li><li class="expanded "><a href="ch20-00-final-project-a-web-server.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">20.</strong> Final Project: Building a Multithreaded Web Server</a></li><li><ol class="section"><li class="expanded "><a href="ch20-01-single-threaded.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">20.1.</strong> Building a Single-Threaded Web Server</a></li><li class="expanded "><a href="ch20-02-multithreaded.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">20.2.</strong> Turning Our Single-Threaded Server into a Multithreaded Server</a></li><li class="expanded "><a href="ch20-03-graceful-shutdown-and-cleanup.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">20.3.</strong> Graceful Shutdown and Cleanup</a></li></ol></li><li class="expanded "><a href="appendix-00.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">21.</strong> Appendix</a></li><li><ol class="section"><li class="expanded "><a href="appendix-01-keywords.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">21.1.</strong> A - Keywords</a></li><li class="expanded "><a href="appendix-02-operators.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">21.2.</strong> B - Operators and Symbols</a></li><li class="expanded "><a href="appendix-03-derivable-traits.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">21.3.</strong> C - Derivable Traits</a></li><li class="expanded "><a href="appendix-04-useful-development-tools.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">21.4.</strong> D - Useful Development Tools</a></li><li class="expanded "><a href="appendix-05-editions.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">21.5.</strong> E - Editions</a></li><li class="expanded "><a href="appendix-06-translation.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">21.6.</strong> F - Translations of the Book</a></li><li class="expanded "><a href="appendix-07-nightly-rust.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">21.7.</strong> G - How Rust is Made and “Nightly Rust”</a></li></ol></li></ol> </div> <div id="sidebar-resize-handle" class="sidebar-resize-handle"></div> </nav> <div id="page-wrapper" class="page-wrapper"> <div class="page"> <div id="menu-bar" class="menu-bar"> <div id="menu-bar-sticky-container"> <div class="left-buttons"> <button id="sidebar-toggle" class="icon-button" type="button" title="Toggle Table of Contents" aria-label="Toggle Table of Contents" aria-controls="sidebar"> <i class="fa fa-bars"></i> </button> <button id="theme-toggle" class="icon-button" type="button" title="Change theme" aria-label="Change theme" aria-haspopup="true" aria-expanded="false" aria-controls="theme-list"> <i class="fa fa-paint-brush"></i> </button> <ul id="theme-list" class="theme-popup" aria-label="Themes" role="menu"> <li role="none"><button role="menuitem" class="theme" id="light">Light (default)</button></li> <li role="none"><button role="menuitem" class="theme" id="rust">Rust</button></li> <li role="none"><button role="menuitem" class="theme" id="coal">Coal</button></li> <li role="none"><button role="menuitem" class="theme" id="navy">Navy</button></li> <li role="none"><button role="menuitem" class="theme" id="ayu">Ayu</button></li> </ul> <button id="search-toggle" class="icon-button" type="button" title="Search. (Shortkey: s)" aria-label="Toggle Searchbar" aria-expanded="false" aria-keyshortcuts="S" aria-controls="searchbar"> <i class="fa fa-search"></i> </button> </div> <h1 class="menu-title">The Rust Programming Language</h1> <div class="right-buttons"> <a href="print.html" title="Print this book" aria-label="Print this book"> <i id="print-button" class="fa fa-print"></i> </a> </div> </div> </div> <div id="search-wrapper" class="hidden"> <form id="searchbar-outer" class="searchbar-outer"> <input type="search" name="search" id="searchbar" name="searchbar" placeholder="Search this book ..." aria-controls="searchresults-outer" aria-describedby="searchresults-header"> </form> <div id="searchresults-outer" class="searchresults-outer hidden"> <div id="searchresults-header" class="searchresults-header"></div> <ul id="searchresults"> </ul> </div> </div> <!-- Apply ARIA attributes after the sidebar and the sidebar toggle button are added to the DOM --> <script type="text/javascript"> document.getElementById('sidebar-toggle').setAttribute('aria-expanded', sidebar === 'visible'); document.getElementById('sidebar').setAttribute('aria-hidden', sidebar !== 'visible'); Array.from(document.querySelectorAll('#sidebar a')).forEach(function(link) { link.setAttribute('tabIndex', sidebar === 'visible' ? 0 : -1); }); </script> <div id="content" class="content"> <main> <h2><a class="header" href="#macros" id="macros">Macros</a></h2> <p>We’ve used macros like <code>println!</code> throughout this book, but we haven’t fully explored what a macro is and how it works. The term <em>macro</em> refers to a family of features in Rust: <em>declarative</em> macros with <code>macro_rules!</code> and three kinds of <em>procedural</em> macros:</p> <ul> <li>Custom <code>#[derive]</code> macros that specify code added with the <code>derive</code> attribute used on structs and enums</li> <li>Attribute-like macros that define custom attributes usable on any item</li> <li>Function-like macros that look like function calls but operate on the tokens specified as their argument</li> </ul> <p>We’ll talk about each of these in turn, but first, let’s look at why we even need macros when we already have functions.</p> <h3><a class="header" href="#the-difference-between-macros-and-functions" id="the-difference-between-macros-and-functions">The Difference Between Macros and Functions</a></h3> <p>Fundamentally, macros are a way of writing code that writes other code, which is known as <em>metaprogramming</em>. In Appendix C, we discuss the <code>derive</code> attribute, which generates an implementation of various traits for you. We’ve also used the <code>println!</code> and <code>vec!</code> macros throughout the book. All of these macros <em>expand</em> to produce more code than the code you’ve written manually.</p> <p>Metaprogramming is useful for reducing the amount of code you have to write and maintain, which is also one of the roles of functions. However, macros have some additional powers that functions don’t.</p> <p>A function signature must declare the number and type of parameters the function has. Macros, on the other hand, can take a variable number of parameters: we can call <code>println!("hello")</code> with one argument or <code>println!("hello {}", name)</code> with two arguments. Also, macros are expanded before the compiler interprets the meaning of the code, so a macro can, for example, implement a trait on a given type. A function can’t, because it gets called at runtime and a trait needs to be implemented at compile time.</p> <p>The downside to implementing a macro instead of a function is that macro definitions are more complex than function definitions because you’re writing Rust code that writes Rust code. Due to this indirection, macro definitions are generally more difficult to read, understand, and maintain than function definitions.</p> <p>Another important difference between macros and functions is that you must define macros or bring them into scope <em>before</em> you call them in a file, as opposed to functions you can define anywhere and call anywhere.</p> <h3><a class="header" href="#declarative-macros-with-macro_rules-for-general-metaprogramming" id="declarative-macros-with-macro_rules-for-general-metaprogramming">Declarative Macros with <code>macro_rules!</code> for General Metaprogramming</a></h3> <p>The most widely used form of macros in Rust is <em>declarative macros</em>. These are also sometimes referred to as “macros by example,” “<code>macro_rules!</code> macros,” or just plain “macros.” At their core, declarative macros allow you to write something similar to a Rust <code>match</code> expression. As discussed in Chapter 6, <code>match</code> expressions are control structures that take an expression, compare the resulting value of the expression to patterns, and then run the code associated with the matching pattern. Macros also compare a value to patterns that are associated with particular code: in this situation, the value is the literal Rust source code passed to the macro; the patterns are compared with the structure of that source code; and the code associated with each pattern, when matched, replaces the code passed to the macro. This all happens during compilation.</p> <p>To define a macro, you use the <code>macro_rules!</code> construct. Let’s explore how to use <code>macro_rules!</code> by looking at how the <code>vec!</code> macro is defined. Chapter 8 covered how we can use the <code>vec!</code> macro to create a new vector with particular values. For example, the following macro creates a new vector containing three integers:</p> <pre><pre class="playpen"><code class="language-rust"> <span class="boring">#![allow(unused_variables)] </span><span class="boring">fn main() { </span>let v: Vec<u32> = vec![1, 2, 3]; <span class="boring">} </span></code></pre></pre> <p>We could also use the <code>vec!</code> macro to make a vector of two integers or a vector of five string slices. We wouldn’t be able to use a function to do the same because we wouldn’t know the number or type of values up front.</p> <p>Listing 19-28 shows a slightly simplified definition of the <code>vec!</code> macro.</p> <p><span class="filename">Filename: src/lib.rs</span></p> <pre><pre class="playpen"><code class="language-rust"> <span class="boring">#![allow(unused_variables)] </span><span class="boring">fn main() { </span>#[macro_export] macro_rules! vec { ( $( $x:expr ),* ) => { { let mut temp_vec = Vec::new(); $( temp_vec.push($x); )* temp_vec } }; } <span class="boring">} </span></code></pre></pre> <p><span class="caption">Listing 19-28: A simplified version of the <code>vec!</code> macro definition</span></p> <blockquote> <p>Note: The actual definition of the <code>vec!</code> macro in the standard library includes code to preallocate the correct amount of memory up front. That code is an optimization that we don’t include here to make the example simpler.</p> </blockquote> <p>The <code>#[macro_export]</code> annotation indicates that this macro should be made available whenever the crate in which the macro is defined is brought into scope. Without this annotation, the macro can’t be brought into scope.</p> <p>We then start the macro definition with <code>macro_rules!</code> and the name of the macro we’re defining <em>without</em> the exclamation mark. The name, in this case <code>vec</code>, is followed by curly brackets denoting the body of the macro definition.</p> <p>The structure in the <code>vec!</code> body is similar to the structure of a <code>match</code> expression. Here we have one arm with the pattern <code>( $( $x:expr ),* )</code>, followed by <code>=></code> and the block of code associated with this pattern. If the pattern matches, the associated block of code will be emitted. Given that this is the only pattern in this macro, there is only one valid way to match; any other pattern will result in an error. More complex macros will have more than one arm.</p> <p>Valid pattern syntax in macro definitions is different than the pattern syntax covered in Chapter 18 because macro patterns are matched against Rust code structure rather than values. Let’s walk through what the pattern pieces in Listing 19-28 mean; for the full macro pattern syntax, see <a href="../reference/macros.html">the reference</a>.</p> <p>First, a set of parentheses encompasses the whole pattern. A dollar sign (<code>$</code>) is next, followed by a set of parentheses that captures values that match the pattern within the parentheses for use in the replacement code. Within <code>$()</code> is <code>$x:expr</code>, which matches any Rust expression and gives the expression the name <code>$x</code>.</p> <p>The comma following <code>$()</code> indicates that a literal comma separator character could optionally appear after the code that matches the code in <code>$()</code>. The <code>*</code> specifies that the pattern matches zero or more of whatever precedes the <code>*</code>.</p> <p>When we call this macro with <code>vec![1, 2, 3];</code>, the <code>$x</code> pattern matches three times with the three expressions <code>1</code>, <code>2</code>, and <code>3</code>.</p> <p>Now let’s look at the pattern in the body of the code associated with this arm: <code>temp_vec.push()</code> within <code>$()*</code> is generated for each part that matches <code>$()</code> in the pattern zero or more times depending on how many times the pattern matches. The <code>$x</code> is replaced with each expression matched. When we call this macro with <code>vec![1, 2, 3];</code>, the code generated that replaces this macro call will be the following:</p> <pre><code class="language-rust ignore">let mut temp_vec = Vec::new(); temp_vec.push(1); temp_vec.push(2); temp_vec.push(3); temp_vec </code></pre> <p>We’ve defined a macro that can take any number of arguments of any type and can generate code to create a vector containing the specified elements.</p> <p>There are some strange edge cases with <code>macro_rules!</code>. In the future, Rust will have a second kind of declarative macro that will work in a similar fashion but fix some of these edge cases. After that update, <code>macro_rules!</code> will be effectively deprecated. With this in mind, as well as the fact that most Rust programmers will <em>use</em> macros more than <em>write</em> macros, we won’t discuss <code>macro_rules!</code> any further. To learn more about how to write macros, consult the online documentation or other resources, such as <a href="https://danielkeep.github.io/tlborm/book/index.html">“The Little Book of Rust Macros”</a>.</p> <h3><a class="header" href="#procedural-macros-for-generating-code-from-attributes" id="procedural-macros-for-generating-code-from-attributes">Procedural Macros for Generating Code from Attributes</a></h3> <p>The second form of macros is <em>procedural macros</em>, which act more like functions (and are a type of procedure). Procedural macros accept some code as an input, operate on that code, and produce some code as an output rather than matching against patterns and replacing the code with other code as declarative macros do.</p> <p>The three kinds of procedural macros (custom derive, attribute-like, and function-like) all work in a similar fashion.</p> <p>When creating procedural macros, the definitions must reside in their own crate with a special crate type. This is for complex technical reasons that we hope to eliminate in the future. Using procedural macros looks like the code in Listing 19-29, where <code>some_attribute</code> is a placeholder for using a specific macro.</p> <p><span class="filename">Filename: src/lib.rs</span></p> <pre><code class="language-rust ignore">use proc_macro; #[some_attribute] pub fn some_name(input: TokenStream) -> TokenStream { } </code></pre> <p><span class="caption">Listing 19-29: An example of using a procedural macro</span></p> <p>The function that defines a procedural macro takes a <code>TokenStream</code> as an input and produces a <code>TokenStream</code> as an output. The <code>TokenStream</code> type is defined by the <code>proc_macro</code> crate that is included with Rust and represents a sequence of tokens. This is the core of the macro: the source code that the macro is operating on makes up the input <code>TokenStream</code>, and the code the macro produces is the output <code>TokenStream</code>. The function also has an attribute attached to it that specifies which kind of procedural macro we’re creating. We can have multiple kinds of procedural macros in the same crate.</p> <p>Let’s look at the different kinds of procedural macros. We’ll start with a custom derive macro and then explain the small dissimilarities that make the other forms different.</p> <h3><a class="header" href="#how-to-write-a-custom-derive-macro" id="how-to-write-a-custom-derive-macro">How to Write a Custom <code>derive</code> Macro</a></h3> <p>Let’s create a crate named <code>hello_macro</code> that defines a trait named <code>HelloMacro</code> with one associated function named <code>hello_macro</code>. Rather than making our crate users implement the <code>HelloMacro</code> trait for each of their types, we’ll provide a procedural macro so users can annotate their type with <code>#[derive(HelloMacro)]</code> to get a default implementation of the <code>hello_macro</code> function. The default implementation will print <code>Hello, Macro! My name is TypeName!</code> where <code>TypeName</code> is the name of the type on which this trait has been defined. In other words, we’ll write a crate that enables another programmer to write code like Listing 19-30 using our crate.</p> <p><span class="filename">Filename: src/main.rs</span></p> <pre><code class="language-rust ignore">use hello_macro::HelloMacro; use hello_macro_derive::HelloMacro; #[derive(HelloMacro)] struct Pancakes; fn main() { Pancakes::hello_macro(); } </code></pre> <p><span class="caption">Listing 19-30: The code a user of our crate will be able to write when using our procedural macro</span></p> <p>This code will print <code>Hello, Macro! My name is Pancakes!</code> when we’re done. The first step is to make a new library crate, like this:</p> <pre><code class="language-text">$ cargo new hello_macro --lib </code></pre> <p>Next, we’ll define the <code>HelloMacro</code> trait and its associated function:</p> <p><span class="filename">Filename: src/lib.rs</span></p> <pre><pre class="playpen"><code class="language-rust"> <span class="boring">#![allow(unused_variables)] </span><span class="boring">fn main() { </span>pub trait HelloMacro { fn hello_macro(); } <span class="boring">} </span></code></pre></pre> <p>We have a trait and its function. At this point, our crate user could implement the trait to achieve the desired functionality, like so:</p> <pre><code class="language-rust ignore">use hello_macro::HelloMacro; struct Pancakes; impl HelloMacro for Pancakes { fn hello_macro() { println!("Hello, Macro! My name is Pancakes!"); } } fn main() { Pancakes::hello_macro(); } </code></pre> <p>However, they would need to write the implementation block for each type they wanted to use with <code>hello_macro</code>; we want to spare them from having to do this work.</p> <p>Additionally, we can’t yet provide the <code>hello_macro</code> function with default implementation that will print the name of the type the trait is implemented on: Rust doesn’t have reflection capabilities, so it can’t look up the type’s name at runtime. We need a macro to generate code at compile time.</p> <p>The next step is to define the procedural macro. At the time of this writing, procedural macros need to be in their own crate. Eventually, this restriction might be lifted. The convention for structuring crates and macro crates is as follows: for a crate named <code>foo</code>, a custom derive procedural macro crate is called <code>foo_derive</code>. Let’s start a new crate called <code>hello_macro_derive</code> inside our <code>hello_macro</code> project:</p> <pre><code class="language-text">$ cargo new hello_macro_derive --lib </code></pre> <p>Our two crates are tightly related, so we create the procedural macro crate within the directory of our <code>hello_macro</code> crate. If we change the trait definition in <code>hello_macro</code>, we’ll have to change the implementation of the procedural macro in <code>hello_macro_derive</code> as well. The two crates will need to be published separately, and programmers using these crates will need to add both as dependencies and bring them both into scope. We could instead have the <code>hello_macro</code> crate use <code>hello_macro_derive</code> as a dependency and re-export the procedural macro code. However, the way we’ve structured the project makes it possible for programmers to use <code>hello_macro</code> even if they don’t want the <code>derive</code> functionality.</p> <p>We need to declare the <code>hello_macro_derive</code> crate as a procedural macro crate. We’ll also need functionality from the <code>syn</code> and <code>quote</code> crates, as you’ll see in a moment, so we need to add them as dependencies. Add the following to the <em>Cargo.toml</em> file for <code>hello_macro_derive</code>:</p> <p><span class="filename">Filename: hello_macro_derive/Cargo.toml</span></p> <pre><code class="language-toml">[lib] proc-macro = true [dependencies] syn = "0.14.4" quote = "0.6.3" </code></pre> <p>To start defining the procedural macro, place the code in Listing 19-31 into your <em>src/lib.rs</em> file for the <code>hello_macro_derive</code> crate. Note that this code won’t compile until we add a definition for the <code>impl_hello_macro</code> function.</p> <p><span class="filename">Filename: hello_macro_derive/src/lib.rs</span></p> <!-- This usage of `extern crate` is required for the moment with 1.31.0, see: https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/issues/54418 https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/pull/54658 https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/issues/55599 --> <pre><code class="language-rust ignore">extern crate proc_macro; use crate::proc_macro::TokenStream; use quote::quote; use syn; #[proc_macro_derive(HelloMacro)] pub fn hello_macro_derive(input: TokenStream) -> TokenStream { // Construct a representation of Rust code as a syntax tree // that we can manipulate let ast = syn::parse(input).unwrap(); // Build the trait implementation impl_hello_macro(&ast) } </code></pre> <p><span class="caption">Listing 19-31: Code that most procedural macro crates will require in order to process Rust code</span></p> <p>Notice that we’ve split the code into the <code>hello_macro_derive</code> function, which is responsible for parsing the <code>TokenStream</code>, and the <code>impl_hello_macro</code> function, which is responsible for transforming the syntax tree: this makes writing a procedural macro more convenient. The code in the outer function (<code>hello_macro_derive</code> in this case) will be the same for almost every procedural macro crate you see or create. The code you specify in the body of the inner function (<code>impl_hello_macro</code> in this case) will be different depending on your procedural macro’s purpose.</p> <p>We’ve introduced three new crates: <code>proc_macro</code>, <a href="https://crates.io/crates/syn"><code>syn</code></a>, and <a href="https://crates.io/crates/quote"><code>quote</code></a>. The <code>proc_macro</code> crate comes with Rust, so we didn’t need to add that to the dependencies in <em>Cargo.toml</em>. The <code>proc_macro</code> crate is the compiler’s API that allows us to read and manipulate Rust code from our code.</p> <p>The <code>syn</code> crate parses Rust code from a string into a data structure that we can perform operations on. The <code>quote</code> crate turns <code>syn</code> data structures back into Rust code. These crates make it much simpler to parse any sort of Rust code we might want to handle: writing a full parser for Rust code is no simple task.</p> <p>The <code>hello_macro_derive</code> function will be called when a user of our library specifies <code>#[derive(HelloMacro)]</code> on a type. This is possible because we’ve annotated the <code>hello_macro_derive</code> function here with <code>proc_macro_derive</code> and specified the name, <code>HelloMacro</code>, which matches our trait name; this is the convention most procedural macros follow.</p> <p>The <code>hello_macro_derive</code> function first converts the <code>input</code> from a <code>TokenStream</code> to a data structure that we can then interpret and perform operations on. This is where <code>syn</code> comes into play. The <code>parse</code> function in <code>syn</code> takes a <code>TokenStream</code> and returns a <code>DeriveInput</code> struct representing the parsed Rust code. Listing 19-32 shows the relevant parts of the <code>DeriveInput</code> struct we get from parsing the <code>struct Pancakes;</code> string:</p> <pre><code class="language-rust ignore">DeriveInput { // --snip-- ident: Ident { ident: "Pancakes", span: #0 bytes(95..103) }, data: Struct( DataStruct { struct_token: Struct, fields: Unit, semi_token: Some( Semi ) } ) } </code></pre> <p><span class="caption">Listing 19-32: The <code>DeriveInput</code> instance we get when parsing the code that has the macro’s attribute in Listing 19-30</span></p> <p>The fields of this struct show that the Rust code we’ve parsed is a unit struct with the <code>ident</code> (identifier, meaning the name) of <code>Pancakes</code>. There are more fields on this struct for describing all sorts of Rust code; check the <a href="https://docs.rs/syn/0.14.4/syn/struct.DeriveInput.html"><code>syn</code> documentation for <code>DeriveInput</code></a> for more information.</p> <p>Soon we’ll define the <code>impl_hello_macro</code> function, which is where we’ll build the new Rust code we want to include. But before we do, note that the output for our derive macro is also a <code>TokenStream</code>. The returned <code>TokenStream</code> is added to the code that our crate users write, so when they compile their crate, they’ll get the extra functionality that we provide in the modified <code>TokenStream</code>.</p> <p>You might have noticed that we’re calling <code>unwrap</code> to cause the <code>hello_macro_derive</code> function to panic if the call to the <code>syn::parse</code> function fails here. It’s necessary for our procedural macro to panic on errors because <code>proc_macro_derive</code> functions must return <code>TokenStream</code> rather than <code>Result</code> to conform to the procedural macro API. We’ve simplified this example by using <code>unwrap</code>; in production code, you should provide more specific error messages about what went wrong by using <code>panic!</code> or <code>expect</code>.</p> <p>Now that we have the code to turn the annotated Rust code from a <code>TokenStream</code> into a <code>DeriveInput</code> instance, let’s generate the code that implements the <code>HelloMacro</code> trait on the annotated type, as shown in Listing 19-33.</p> <p><span class="filename">Filename: hello_macro_derive/src/lib.rs</span></p> <pre><code class="language-rust ignore">fn impl_hello_macro(ast: &syn::DeriveInput) -> TokenStream { let name = &ast.ident; let gen = quote! { impl HelloMacro for #name { fn hello_macro() { println!("Hello, Macro! My name is {}", stringify!(#name)); } } }; gen.into() } </code></pre> <p><span class="caption">Listing 19-33: Implementing the <code>HelloMacro</code> trait using the parsed Rust code</span></p> <p>We get an <code>Ident</code> struct instance containing the name (identifier) of the annotated type using <code>ast.ident</code>. The struct in Listing 19-32 shows that when we run the <code>impl_hello_macro</code> function on the code in Listing 19-30, the <code>ident</code> we get will have the <code>ident</code> field with a value of <code>"Pancakes"</code>. Thus, the <code>name</code> variable in Listing 19-33 will contain an <code>Ident</code> struct instance that, when printed, will be the string <code>"Pancakes"</code>, the name of the struct in Listing 19-30.</p> <p>The <code>quote!</code> macro lets us define the Rust code that we want to return. The compiler expects something different to the direct result of the <code>quote!</code> macro’s execution, so we need to convert it to a <code>TokenStream</code>. We do this by calling the <code>into</code> method, which consumes this intermediate representation and returns a value of the required <code>TokenStream</code> type.</p> <p>The <code>quote!</code> macro also provides some very cool templating mechanics: we can enter <code>#name</code>, and <code>quote!</code> will replace it with the value in the variable <code>name</code>. You can even do some repetition similar to the way regular macros work. Check out <a href="https://docs.rs/quote">the <code>quote</code> crate’s docs</a> for a thorough introduction.</p> <p>We want our procedural macro to generate an implementation of our <code>HelloMacro</code> trait for the type the user annotated, which we can get by using <code>#name</code>. The trait implementation has one function, <code>hello_macro</code>, whose body contains the functionality we want to provide: printing <code>Hello, Macro! My name is</code> and then the name of the annotated type.</p> <p>The <code>stringify!</code> macro used here is built into Rust. It takes a Rust expression, such as <code>1 + 2</code>, and at compile time turns the expression into a string literal, such as <code>"1 + 2"</code>. This is different than <code>format!</code> or <code>println!</code>, macros which evaluate the expression and then turn the result into a <code>String</code>. There is a possibility that the <code>#name</code> input might be an expression to print literally, so we use <code>stringify!</code>. Using <code>stringify!</code> also saves an allocation by converting <code>#name</code> to a string literal at compile time.</p> <p>At this point, <code>cargo build</code> should complete successfully in both <code>hello_macro</code> and <code>hello_macro_derive</code>. Let’s hook up these crates to the code in Listing 19-30 to see the procedural macro in action! Create a new binary project in your <em>projects</em> directory using <code>cargo new pancakes</code>. We need to add <code>hello_macro</code> and <code>hello_macro_derive</code> as dependencies in the <code>pancakes</code> crate’s <em>Cargo.toml</em>. If you’re publishing your versions of <code>hello_macro</code> and <code>hello_macro_derive</code> to <a href="https://crates.io/">crates.io</a>, they would be regular dependencies; if not, you can specify them as <code>path</code> dependencies as follows:</p> <pre><code class="language-toml">[dependencies] hello_macro = { path = "../hello_macro" } hello_macro_derive = { path = "../hello_macro/hello_macro_derive" } </code></pre> <p>Put the code in Listing 19-30 into <em>src/main.rs</em>, and run <code>cargo run</code>: it should print <code>Hello, Macro! My name is Pancakes!</code> The implementation of the <code>HelloMacro</code> trait from the procedural macro was included without the <code>pancakes</code> crate needing to implement it; the <code>#[derive(HelloMacro)]</code> added the trait implementation.</p> <p>Next, let’s explore how the other kinds of procedural macros differ from custom derive macros.</p> <h3><a class="header" href="#attribute-like-macros" id="attribute-like-macros">Attribute-like macros</a></h3> <p>Attribute-like macros are similar to custom derive macros, but instead of generating code for the <code>derive</code> attribute, they allow you to create new attributes. They’re also more flexible: <code>derive</code> only works for structs and enums; attributes can be applied to other items as well, such as functions. Here’s an example of using an attribute-like macro: say you have an attribute named <code>route</code> that annotates functions when using a web application framework:</p> <pre><code class="language-rust ignore">#[route(GET, "/")] fn index() { </code></pre> <p>This <code>#[route]</code> attribute would be defined by the framework as a procedural macro. The signature of the macro definition function would look like this:</p> <pre><code class="language-rust ignore">#[proc_macro_attribute] pub fn route(attr: TokenStream, item: TokenStream) -> TokenStream { </code></pre> <p>Here, we have two parameters of type <code>TokenStream</code>. The first is for the contents of the attribute: the <code>GET, "/"</code> part. The second is the body of the item the attribute is attached to: in this case, <code>fn index() {}</code> and the rest of the function’s body.</p> <p>Other than that, attribute-like macros work the same way as custom derive macros: you create a crate with the <code>proc-macro</code> crate type and implement a function that generates the code you want!</p> <h3><a class="header" href="#function-like-macros" id="function-like-macros">Function-like macros</a></h3> <p>Function-like macros define macros that look like function calls. Similarly to <code>macro_rules!</code> macros, they’re more flexible than functions; for example, they can take an unknown number of arguments. However, <code>macro_rules!</code> macros can be defined only using the match-like syntax we discussed in the section <a href="#declarative-macros-with-macro_rules-for-general-metaprogramming">“Declarative Macros with <code>macro_rules!</code> for General Metaprogramming”</a> earlier. Function-like macros take a <code>TokenStream</code> parameter and their definition manipulates that <code>TokenStream</code> using Rust code as the other two types of procedural macros do. An example of a function-like macro is an <code>sql!</code> macro that might be called like so:</p> <pre><code class="language-rust ignore">let sql = sql!(SELECT * FROM posts WHERE id=1); </code></pre> <p>This macro would parse the SQL statement inside it and check that it’s syntactically correct, which is much more complex processing than a <code>macro_rules!</code> macro can do. The <code>sql!</code> macro would be defined like this:</p> <pre><code class="language-rust ignore">#[proc_macro] pub fn sql(input: TokenStream) -> TokenStream { </code></pre> <p>This definition is similar to the custom derive macro’s signature: we receive the tokens that are inside the parentheses and return the code we wanted to generate.</p> <h2><a class="header" href="#summary" id="summary">Summary</a></h2> <p>Whew! Now you have some Rust features in your toolbox that you won’t use often, but you’ll know they’re available in very particular circumstances. We’ve introduced several complex topics so that when you encounter them in error message suggestions or in other peoples’ code, you’ll be able to recognize these concepts and syntax. Use this chapter as a reference to guide you to solutions.</p> <p>Next, we’ll put everything we’ve discussed throughout the book into practice and do one more project!</p> </main> <nav class="nav-wrapper" aria-label="Page navigation"> <!-- Mobile navigation buttons --> <a rel="prev" href="ch19-05-advanced-functions-and-closures.html" class="mobile-nav-chapters previous" title="Previous chapter" aria-label="Previous chapter" aria-keyshortcuts="Left"> <i class="fa fa-angle-left"></i> </a> <a rel="next" href="ch20-00-final-project-a-web-server.html" class="mobile-nav-chapters next" title="Next chapter" aria-label="Next chapter" aria-keyshortcuts="Right"> <i class="fa fa-angle-right"></i> </a> <div style="clear: both"></div> </nav> </div> </div> <nav class="nav-wide-wrapper" aria-label="Page navigation"> <a href="ch19-05-advanced-functions-and-closures.html" class="nav-chapters previous" title="Previous chapter" aria-label="Previous chapter" aria-keyshortcuts="Left"> <i class="fa fa-angle-left"></i> </a> <a href="ch20-00-final-project-a-web-server.html" class="nav-chapters next" title="Next chapter" aria-label="Next chapter" aria-keyshortcuts="Right"> <i class="fa fa-angle-right"></i> </a> </nav> </div> <script type="text/javascript"> window.playpen_copyable = true; </script> <script src="elasticlunr.min.js" type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8"></script> <script src="mark.min.js" type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8"></script> <script src="searcher.js" type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8"></script> <script src="clipboard.min.js" type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8"></script> <script src="highlight.js" type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8"></script> <script src="book.js" type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8"></script> <!-- Custom JS scripts --> <script type="text/javascript" src="ferris.js"></script> </body> </html>