Generic Types, Traits, and Lifetimes

Every programming language has tools for effectively handling the duplication of concepts. In Rust, one such tool is generics: abstract stand-ins for concrete types or other properties. We can express the behavior of generics or how they relate to other generics without knowing what will be in their place when compiling and running the code.

Functions can take parameters of some generic type, instead of a concrete type like i32 or String, in the same way a function takes parameters with unknown values to run the same code on multiple concrete values. In fact, we’ve already used generics in Chapter 6 with Option, Chapter 8 with Vec and HashMap, and Chapter 9 with Result. In this chapter, you’ll explore how to define your own types, functions, and methods with generics!

First, we’ll review how to extract a function to reduce code duplication. We’ll then use the same technique to make a generic function from two functions that differ only in the types of their parameters. We’ll also explain how to use generic types in struct and enum definitions.

Then you’ll learn how to use traits to define behavior in a generic way. You can combine traits with generic types to constrain a generic type to accept only those types that have a particular behavior, as opposed to just any type.

Finally, we’ll discuss lifetimes: a variety of generics that give the compiler information about how references relate to each other. Lifetimes allow us to give the compiler enough information about borrowed values so that it can ensure references will be valid in more situations than it could without our help.

Removing Duplication by Extracting a Function

Generics allow us to replace specific types with a placeholder that represents multiple types to remove code duplication. Before diving into generics syntax, then, let’s first look at how to remove duplication in a way that doesn’t involve generic types by extracting a function that replaces specific values with a placeholder that represents multiple values. Then we’ll apply the same technique to extract a generic function! By looking at how to recognize duplicated code you can extract into a function, you’ll start to recognize duplicated code that can use generics.

We begin with the short program in Listing 10-1 that finds the largest number in a list.

Filename: src/main.rs

  1. fn main() {
  2.     let number_list = vec![34, 50, 25, 100, 65];
  4.     let mut largest = &number_list[0];
  6.     for number in &number_list {
  7.         if number > largest {
  8.             largest = number;
  9.         }
  10.     }
  12.     println!("The largest number is {}", largest);
  13.     assert_eq!(*largest, 100);
  14. }

Listing 10-1: Finding the largest number in a list of numbers

We store a list of integers in the variable number_list and place a reference to the first number in the list in a variable named largest. We then iterate through all the numbers in the list, and if the current number is greater than the number stored in largest, replace the reference in that variable. However, if the current number is less than or equal to the largest number seen so far, the variable doesn’t change, and the code moves on to the next number in the list. After considering all the numbers in the list, largest should refer to the largest number, which in this case is 100.

We've now been tasked with finding the largest number in two different lists of numbers. To do so, we can choose to duplicate the code in Listing 10-1 and use the same logic at two different places in the program, as shown in Listing 10-2.

Filename: src/main.rs

  1. fn main() {
  2.     let number_list = vec![34, 50, 25, 100, 65];
  4.     let mut largest = &number_list[0];
  6.     for number in &number_list {
  7.         if number > largest {
  8.             largest = number;
  9.         }
  10.     }
  12.     println!("The largest number is {}", largest);
  14.     let number_list = vec![102, 34, 6000, 89, 54, 2, 43, 8];
  16.     let mut largest = &number_list[0];
  18.     for number in &number_list {
  19.         if number > largest {
  20.             largest = number;
  21.         }
  22.     }
  24.     println!("The largest number is {}", largest);
  25. }

Listing 10-2: Code to find the largest number in two lists of numbers

Although this code works, duplicating code is tedious and error prone. We also have to remember to update the code in multiple places when we want to change it.

To eliminate this duplication, we’ll create an abstraction by defining a function that operates on any list of integers passed in a parameter. This solution makes our code clearer and lets us express the concept of finding the largest number in a list abstractly.

In Listing 10-3, we extract the code that finds the largest number into a function named largest. Then we call the function to find the largest number in the two lists from Listing 10-2. We could also use the function on any other list of i32 values we might have in the future.

Filename: src/main.rs

  1. fn largest(list: &[i32]) -> &i32 {
  2.     let mut largest = &list[0];
  4.     for item in list {
  5.         if item > largest {
  6.             largest = item;
  7.         }
  8.     }
  10.     largest
  11. }
  13. fn main() {
  14.     let number_list = vec![34, 50, 25, 100, 65];
  16.     let result = largest(&number_list);
  17.     println!("The largest number is {}", result);
  18.     assert_eq!(*result, 100);
  20.     let number_list = vec![102, 34, 6000, 89, 54, 2, 43, 8];
  22.     let result = largest(&number_list);
  23.     println!("The largest number is {}", result);
  24.     assert_eq!(*result, 6000);
  25. }

Listing 10-3: Abstracted code to find the largest number in two lists

The largest function has a parameter called list, which represents any concrete slice of i32 values we might pass into the function. As a result, when we call the function, the code runs on the specific values that we pass in.

In summary, here are the steps we took to change the code from Listing 10-2 to Listing 10-3:

  • Identify duplicate code.
  • Extract the duplicate code into the body of the function and specify the inputs and return values of that code in the function signature.
  • Update the two instances of duplicated code to call the function instead.

Next, we’ll use these same steps with generics to reduce code duplication. In the same way that the function body can operate on an abstract list instead of specific values, generics allow code to operate on abstract types.

For example, say we had two functions: one that finds the largest item in a slice of i32 values and one that finds the largest item in a slice of char values. How would we eliminate that duplication? Let’s find out!