Rust Cookbook

Numbers

Convert a number to a string

Let’s say you have an integer you want to turn into a string.

In C++ you might do one of the following:

  1. const int value = 17;
  2. std::string value_as_string;
  4. // Nonstandard C itoa() (also not thread safe)
  5. value_as_string = itoa(value);
  7. // OR _itoa()
  8. char buffer[16];
  9. _itoa(value, buffer, 10);
  11. // OR
  12. sprintf(buffer, "%d", value);
  14. // OR
  15. stringstream ss;
  16. ss << value;
  17. value_as_string = ss.str();
  19. // OR (boost)
  20. value_as_string = boost::lexical_cast<std::string>(ivalue);

All of these have issues. Some are extensions to the standard, others may not be thread safe, some may break if value was changed to another type, e.g. long long.

Rust makes it far easier because numeric primitives implement a trait called ToString. The ToString trait has a to_string() function. So to convert the number to string is as simple as this:

  1. let value = 17u32;
  2. let value_as_string = value.to_string();

The same is true for a floating point number:

  1. let value = 100.00345f32;
  2. let value_as_string = value.to_string();

Convert a number to a string with precision / padding

In C you would add precision of padding using printf operations:

  1. double value = 1234.66667;
  2. char result[32];
  3. sprintf(result, "%08.2d", value);

In C++ you could use the C way (and to be honest it’s easier than what is written below), or you can set padding and precision through an ostream:

  1. // TODO validate
  2. double value = 1234.66667;
  3. ostringstream ss;
  4. ss << setfill('0') << setw(8) << setprecision(2) << value;

In Rust you can use format!() [https://doc.rust-lang.org/std/fmt/] for this purpose and it is similar to printf / sprintf:

  1. let value = 1234.66667;
  2. let value_as_string = format!("{:08.2}", value);
  3. println!("value = {}", value_as_string);

Output

  1. value = 01234.67

Convert a number to a localized string

Some locales will use dots or commas for separators. Some languages will use dots or commas for the decimal place. In order to format these strings we need to make use of the locale.

TODO

Convert a string to a number

In C / C++ a number might be converted from a string to a number in a number of ways

  2. int value = atoi(value_as_str);

TODO

In Rust we have a &str containing a number:

  1. let value_as_str = "12345";

Any type that implements a trait called FromStr can take its type from a string. All the standard primitive types implement FromStr so we can simply say this:

  1. let value_as_str = "12345";
  2. let value = i32::from_str(value_as_str).unwrap();

Note the unwrap() at the end - the FromStr::from_str() returns the value inside a Result, to allow for the possibility that the string cannot be parsed. Production code should test for errors before calling unwrap() or it will panic.

Another way to get the string is to call parse() on the &str or String itself. In this case, you use a slightly odd looking syntax nicknamed ‘turbofish’ which looks like this:

  1. use std::str::FromStr;
  2. let value_as_str = "12345";
  3. let value = value_as_str.parse::<i32>().unwrap();

The string’s implementation of parse() is a generic that works with any type implementing FromStr. So calling parse::<i32> is equivalent to calling i32::from_str().

Note one immediate advantage of Rust is it uses string slices. That means you could have a long string with many numbers separated by delimiters and parse numbers straight out of the middle of it without constructing intermediate copies.

Converting between numeric types

Converting between numeric types is as easy as using the “as” keyword.

  1. let f = 1234.42f32;
  2. let i = f as i32;
  3. println!("Value = {}", i);

The result in i is the integer part of f.

  1. Value = 1234

Strings

Rust comes with some very powerful functions that are attached to every &str and String type. These mostly correspond to what you may be used to on the std::string class and in boost string algorithms.

Most find / match / trim / split string operations in Rust are efficient because they neither modify the existing string, nor return a duplicate to you. Instead they return slices, i.e. a pointer and a length into your existing string to denote the range that is the result.

It is only operations that modify the string contents themselves such as creating upper or lowercase versions that will return a new copy of a string.

Trimming a string

Spaces, tabs and other Unicode characters defined as whitespace can be trimmed from a string.

All strings have access to the following functions

  1. fn trim(&self) -> &str
  2. fn trim_left(&self) -> &str
  3. fn trim_right(&self) -> &str

Note the signatures of these functions - they are not mutable. The functions return a slice of the string that excludes the leading and / or trailing whitespace removed. In other words it is not duplicating the string, nor is it modifying the existing string. Instead it is just telling you what the trimmed range is within the &str you’re already looking at.

So

  1. let untrimmed_str = " this is test with whitespace    \t";
  2. let trimmed_str = untrimmed_str.trim();
  3. println!("Trimmed str = \"{}\"", trimmed_str);

Yields:

  1. Trimmed str = "this is test with whitespace"

Also be aware that trim_left() and and trim_right() above are affected by the directionality of the string.

Most strings read from left-to-right, but strings in Arabic or Hebrew are read right-to-left and will start with a control character that sets their base direction right-to-left. If that character is present, trim_left() actually trims from the right and trim_right() trims from the left.

Get the length of a string

Every &str and String has a len() function.

  1. let message = "All good things come to those who wait";
  2. println!("Length = {}", message.len());

Note that len() is the length in bytes. If you want the number of characters you need to call message.chars().count(), e.g.

  1. let message = "文字列の長さ";
  2. assert_eq!(message.chars().count(), 6);

Splitting a string

String slices and String have a variety of split methods that return an iterable collection of slices on a string:

  1. let input = "20,30,400,100,21,-1";
  2. let values : Vec<&str> = input.split(",").collect();
  3. for (i, s) in values.iter().enumerate() {
  4.     println!("Value {} = {}", i, s);
  5. }

The standard split() takes a string pattern for the delimiter and returns a std::str::Split struct that is an double-ended iterator representation of the matching result. We could call the iterator directly if we so wished but the collect() method above puts the values of the iterator into a Vec<&str>.

  1. Value 0 = 20
  2. Value 1 = 30
  3. Value 2 = 400
  4. Value 3 = 100
  5. Value 4 = 21
  6. Value 5 = -1

A string can also be split on an index, e.g.

  1. let (left, right) = "No Mister Bond I expect you to die".split_at(14);
  2. println!("Left = {}", left);
  3. println!("Right = {}", right);

Note that index is the byte index! The function will panic if the index is in the centre of a UTF-8 codepoint.

Another useful function is split_whitespace that splits on tabs, spaces, newlines and other Unicode whitespace. Any amount of whitespace is treated as a single delimiter.

  1. // Split whitespace
  2. for s in " All good   \n\n\tthings  to those who    wait".split_whitespace() {
  3.     println!("Part - {}", s);
  4. }

Yields the output.

  1. Part - All
  2. Part - good
  3. Part - things
  4. Part - to
  5. Part - those
  6. Part - who
  7. Part - wait

Tokenizing a string

TODO

Joining strings together

TODO

Getting a substring

TODO

Converting a string between upper and lower case

Strings have these functions for converting between upper and lower case:

  1. fn to_lowercase(&self) -> String
  2. fn to_uppercase(&self) -> String

These functions will return a new String that contains the upper or lower case version of the input. Upper and lower case are defined by Unicode rules. Languages that have no upper or lowercase strings may return the same characters.

Doing a case insensitive compare

TODO

Using regular expression matches

TODO

Date and Time

Get the current date and time

TODO time_rs

UTC

TODO explain what UTC is and why maintaining time in UTC is vital Epochs etc.
TODO preamble about what an epoch is, the Unix epoch and other epochs

Setting a timer

TODO setting a timer

System time vs UTC

TODO the reason timers might be set in system uptime vs timers being set in UTC. Answer because users and NTP can change the UTC time wherease system time is relative to bootup. So setting a timer to run 10s from now will always work against system time where setting a timer to run 10s from now in UTC could fail if the OS sets time back by an hour.

Formatting a date as a string

TODO standard date formatting UTC
TODO example

Parsing a date from a string

TODO parsing a date from a string’s
TODO example

Performing date / time arithmetic

Collections

Creating a static array

An array primitive consists of a type and a length. e.g. a 16 kilobyte array of bytes can be created and zeroed like this:

  1. let values: [u8; 16384] = [0; 16384];

The variable specifies the type and length and the assignment operator assigns 0 to every element.

The type, length and values can be initialized implicitly in-place like this:

  1. let my_array = [ "Cat", "Dog", "Fish", "Donkey", "Albatross" ];
  2. println!("{:?}", my_array);

This is an array of 5 &str values. The compiler will complain if we try to mix types in the array.
We could also declare the array and manipulate it:

  1. let mut my_array: [&'static str; 5] = [""; 5];
  2. // Set some values
  3. my_array[0] = "Cat";
  4. my_array[1] = "Dog";
  5. my_array[2] = "Fish";
  6. my_array[3] = "Donkey";
  7. my_array[4] = "Albatross";
  8. println!("{:?}", my_array);

Note in this case we declared the array, each element received an empty value. Then our code programmatically set the new element value.
The latter form would obviously be useful for arrays that change. The latter would be useful for arrays which do not.

Creating a dynamic vector

A vector is a linear array of values. Unlike an array which has a fixed length, a vector can grow or shrink over time.

A vector can be created using the vec! macro like this:

  1. let mut my_vector = vec![1984, 1985, 1988, 1995, 2001];

This creates a mutable Vec and prepopulates it with 5 values. Note how the vec! macro can use square brackets for its arguments. We could have used round brackets and it would have meant the same.

A new Vec can also be made using Vec::new() or Vec::with_capacity(size)

  1. let mut my_array = Vec::new();
  2. my_array.push("Hello");
  3. let my_presized_array = Vec::with_capacity(100);

It is strongly recommended you use Vec::with_capacity() to create a vector with enough capacity for maximum number of elements you expect the vector to contain. It prevents the runtime from having to reallocate and copy data if you keep exceeding the existing capacity. It also significantly reduces heap fragmentation.

Removing values from a vector

Sometimes you want to strip out values from a list which match some predicate. In which case there is a handy function for that purpose.
TODO .retain

Sorting a vector

A vector can be sorted by the natural sort order of the elements it contains:

  1. let mut values = vec![ 99, -1, 3, 555, 76];
  2. values.sort();
  3. println!("Values = {:?}", values);

Sorting is done using the Ord trait and calling Ord::cmp() on the elements to compare them to each other.

Comparison can also be done through a closure and Vec::sort_by()

TODO .sort_by
TODO .sort_by_key

Stripping out duplicates from a vector

Assuming your vec is sorted, you can strip out consecutive duplicate entries using dedup().
This function won’t work and the result will be undefined if your vector is not sorted.
TODO .dedup

Creating a linked list

A linked list is more suitable than a vector when items are likely to be inserted or removed from either end or from points within the list.

std::collections::LinkedList

Creating a hash set

A hash set is a unique collection of objects. It is particularly useful for removing duplicates that might occur in the input.
std::collections::HashSet

Creating a hash map

A hash map consists of a key and a value. It is used for look up operations
std::collections::HashMap

Iterating collections

TODO

Iterator adaptors

TODO

An adaptor turns the iterator into a new value

.enum
.map(X)
.take(N)
.filter(X)

Consuming iterators

A consumer is a convenience way of iterating a collection and producing a value or a set of values from the result.

.collect()

.find() will return the first matching element that matches the closure predicate. TODO

.fold() is a way of doing calculations on the collection. It takes a base value, and then calls a closure to accumulate the value upon the result of the last value. TODO
Processing collections

Localization

Unicode considerations

TODO

Externalizing strings

TODO

Building strings from parameters

TODO

Creating a localization file

TODO

Logging

Files and streams

Rust comes with two standard modules:

  • std::io contains various stream related traits and other functionality.
  • std::fs contains filesystem related functionality including the implementation of IO traits to work with files.

Creating a directory

A directory can be created with std::fs::DirBuilder, e.g.

  1. let result = DirBuilder::new().recursive(true).create("/tmp/work_dir");

File paths

Windows and Unix systems have different notation for path separators and a number of other differences. e.g. Windows has drive letters, long paths, and network paths called UNCs.

Rust provides a PathBuf struct for manipulating paths and a Path which acts like a slice and can be the full path or just a portion of one.

TODO simple example of a path being created

TODO simple example of a Path slice in actively

TODO simple example of relative path made absolute

Windows has a bunch of path prefixes so std::path::Prefix provides a way to accessing those.

TODO example of a path being made from a drive letter and path

Opening a file

A File is a reference to an open file on the filesystem. When the struct goes out of scope the file is closed. There are static functions for creating or opening a file:

  1. use std::io::prelude::*;
  2. use std::fs::File;
  4. let mut f = try!(File::open("myfile.txt"));
  5. TODO

Note that File::open() opens a file read-only by default. To open a file read-write, there is an OpenOptions struct that has methods to set the behaviour of the open file - read, write, create, append and truncate.

e.g. to open a file with read/write access, creating it if it does not already exist.

  1. use std::fs::OpenOptions;
  3. let file = OpenOptions::new()
  4.             .read(true)
  5.             .write(true)
  6.             .create(true)
  7.             .open("myfile.txt");

Writing to a file

TODO simple example of opening file to write

Reading lines from a file

TODO simple example of opening file text mode, printing contents

Threading

Rust actively enforces thread safety in your code. If you attempt to pass around data which is not marked thread safe (i.e. implements the Sync trait), you will get a compile error. If you use code which is implicitly not thread safe such as Rc<> you will get a compile error.

This enforcement means that Rust protects against data race conditions, however be aware it cannot protect against other forms of race conditions or deadlocks, e.g. thread 1 waits for resource B (held by thread 2) while thread 2 waits for resource A (held by thread 1).

Creating a thread

Creating a thread is simple with a closure.

TODO

Waiting for a thread to complete

TODO

Using atomic reference counting

Rust provides two reference counting types. Type Rc<> is for code residing on the same thread and so the reference counting is not atomic. Type Arc<> is for code that runs on different threads and the reference counting is atomic.

An Arc<> can only hold a Sync derived object. Whenever you clone an Arc<> or its lifetime ends, the counter is atomically incremented or decremented. The last decrement to zero causes the object to be deleted.

TODO example

Locking a shared resource

Message passing is a preferable way to prevent threads from sharing state but its not always possible.

Therefore Rust allows you to create a mutex and lock access to shared data. The guard that locks / unlocks the mutex protects the data and when the guard goes out of scope, the data is returned.

This style of guard is called TODO

Data race protection

Rust can guarantee that protection from data races, i.e. more than one thread accessing / writing to the same data at the same time.

However even Rust cannot protect against the more general problem of race conditions. e.g. if two threads lock each other’s data, then the code will deadlock. This is a problem that no language can solve.

Waiting for multiple threads to finish

TODO

Sending data to a thread

Any struct that implements the Send trait is treated safe to send to another thread. Of course that applies to

Receiving data from a thread

A thread can receive messages and block until it receives one. Thus it is easy to create a worker thread of some kind.

TODO

Networking

Connecting to a server

TODO

Listening to a socket

TODO

Interacting with C

Using libc functions and types

Calling a C library

Generating a dynamic library

Calling Win32 functions

Common design patterns

Singleton

A singleton has one instance ever in your application.
TODO

Factory

TODO

Observer

TODO

Facade

TODO

Flyweight

TODO

Adapter

An adapter is where we present a different interface to a client calling the adapter than the interface the code is implemented in. This might be done to make some legacy code conform to a new interface, or to manage / hide complexity which might leak out into the client.

As Rust is a relatively new language you are most likely to use an adapter pattern to wrap some existing code in C. A common use for the adapter in C++ is to wrap up a C library in RAII classes or similar.

TODO