How to convert range to slice in rust? - rust

I want to create a slice of numbers within certain range in Rust. However, the following syntax does not seem to work, as the output is a slice of length 1, composed of a Range object.
let count = 10;
let slice = [0..count/2];
What's the proper way to create a slice in Rust from a range?

You cannot create a slice directly from a range (unless you know an upper bound to the number of elements at compile time, in which case you can use an array), you have to use Vec:
let vec = Vec::from_iter(0..count/2);
let slice = vec.as_slice();

Related

How do I map a range?

I am trying to build objects for every element in a range n, so I at the end have a slice of objects.
Cannot seem to figure out the right way, though. Tried:
[0..n].map(convert_int_to_object)
Square brackets [] denote arrays in Rust; a..b or (a..b) denotes a range. So to create an iterator over the range, what you're looking for is:
(0..n).map(convert_int_to_object)
This creates an iterator, but you will need to collect all the new objects into a collection such as a Vec. For example:
fn my_fun(n: i32) -> Vec<MyStruct> {
(0..n).map(convert_int_to_object).collect()
}
You asked for a slice, but you are creating new objects (allocation) so you need to use a Vec because it owns the new objects. You can get a slice from a vector v with &v or v.as_slice().
let v = my_fun(10);
let slice = v.as_slice();

ndarray rust, change values of a slice

In python's numpy given an array
a = np.zeros((10,10,2))
I could modify values of the array corresponding to a slice 4:6,: as such:
a[4:6,:] = [0,255]
In rust: given a ndarray from the ndarray package, i can slice
let mut img = Array3::<u8>::zeros((10,10,2));
let slice = img.slice_mut(s![4..6,..,..]);
But what is the idiomatic way of changing the values of that slice, by broadcasting the subarray corresponding to the last axis i.e. [0,255]?
through other means i found answer and im posting it here. One needs to combine slice_mut with method .assign(&stuff to broadcast)
let mut img = Array3::<u8>::zeros((10,10,2));
let arr = Array::ones(2);
img.slice_mut(s![4..6usize,..,..]).assign(&arr);

Sort HashMap data by value

I want to sort HashMap data by value in Rust (e.g., when counting character frequency in a string).
The Python equivalent of what I’m trying to do is:
count = {}
for c in text:
count[c] = count.get('c', 0) + 1
sorted_data = sorted(count.items(), key=lambda item: -item[1])
print('Most frequent character in text:', sorted_data[0][0])
My corresponding Rust code looks like this:
// Count the frequency of each letter
let mut count: HashMap<char, u32> = HashMap::new();
for c in text.to_lowercase().chars() {
*count.entry(c).or_insert(0) += 1;
}
// Get a sorted (by field 0 ("count") in reversed order) list of the
// most frequently used characters:
let mut count_vec: Vec<(&char, &u32)> = count.iter().collect();
count_vec.sort_by(|a, b| b.1.cmp(a.1));
println!("Most frequent character in text: {}", count_vec[0].0);
Is this idiomatic Rust? Can I construct the count_vec in a way so that it would consume the HashMaps data and owns it (e.g., using map())? Would this be more idomatic?
Is this idiomatic Rust?
There's nothing particularly unidiomatic, except possibly for the unnecessary full type constraint on count_vec; you could just use
let mut count_vec: Vec<_> = count.iter().collect();
It's not difficult from context to work out what the full type of count_vec is. You could also omit the type constraint for count entirely, but then you'd have to play shenanigans with your integer literals to have the correct value type inferred. That is to say, an explicit annotation is eminently reasonable in this case.
The other borderline change you could make if you feel like it would be to use |a, b| a.1.cmp(b.1).reverse() for the sort closure. The Ordering::reverse method just reverses the result so that less-than becomes greater-than, and vice versa. This makes it slightly more obvious that you meant what you wrote, as opposed to accidentally transposing two letters.
Can I construct the count_vec in a way so that it would consume the HashMaps data and owns it?
Not in any meaningful way. Just because HashMap is using memory doesn't mean that memory is in any way compatible with Vec. You could use count.into_iter() to consume the HashMap and move the elements out (as opposed to iterating over pointers), but since both char and u32 are trivially copyable, this doesn't really gain you anything.
This could be another way to address the matter without the need of an intermediary vector.
// Count the frequency of each letter
let mut count: HashMap<char, u32> = HashMap::new();
for c in text.to_lowercase().chars() {
*count.entry(c).or_insert(0) += 1;
}
let top_char = count.iter().max_by(|a, b| a.1.cmp(&b.1)).unwrap();
println!("Most frequent character in text: {}", top_char.0);
use BTreeMap for sorted data
BTreeMap sorts its elements by key by default, therefore exchanging the place of your key and value and putting them into a BTreeMap
let count_b: BTreeMap<&u32,&char> = count.iter().map(|(k,v)| (v,k)).collect();
should give you a sorted map according to character frequency.
Some character of the same frequency shall be lost though. But if you only want the most frequent character, it does not matter.
You can get the result using
println!("Most frequent character in text: {}", count_b.last_key_value().unwrap().1);

How to get a slice from an Iterator?

I started to use clippy as a linter. Sometimes, it shows this warning:
writing `&Vec<_>` instead of `&[_]` involves one more reference and cannot be
used with non-Vec-based slices. Consider changing the type to `&[...]`,
#[warn(ptr_arg)] on by default
I changed the parameter to a slice but this adds boilerplate on the call side. For instance, the code was:
let names = args.arguments.iter().map(|arg| {
arg.name.clone()
}).collect();
function(&names);
but now it is:
let names = args.arguments.iter().map(|arg| {
arg.name.clone()
}).collect::<Vec<_>>();
function(&names);
otherwise, I get the following error:
error: the trait `core::marker::Sized` is not implemented for the type
`[collections::string::String]` [E0277]
So I wonder if there is a way to convert an Iterator to a slice or avoid having to specify the collected type in this specific case.
So I wonder if there is a way to convert an Iterator to a slice
There is not.
An iterator only provides one element at a time, whereas a slice is about getting several elements at a time. This is why you first need to collect all the elements yielded by the Iterator into a contiguous array (Vec) before being able to use a slice.
The first obvious answer is not to worry about the slight overhead, though personally I would prefer placing the type hint next to the variable (I find it more readable):
let names: Vec<_> = args.arguments.iter().map(|arg| {
arg.name.clone()
}).collect();
function(&names);
Another option would be for function to take an Iterator instead (and an iterator of references, at that):
let names = args.arguments.iter().map(|arg| &arg.name);
function(names);
After all, iterators are more general, and you can always "realize" the slice inside the function if you need to.
So I wonder if there is a way to convert an Iterator to a slice
There is. (in applicable cases)
Got here searching "rust iter to slice", for my use-case, there was a solution:
fn main() {
// example struct
#[derive(Debug)]
struct A(u8);
let list = vec![A(5), A(6), A(7)];
// list_ref passed into a function somewhere ...
let list_ref: &[A] = &list;
let mut iter = list_ref.iter();
// consume some ...
let _a5: Option<&A> = iter.next();
// now want to eg. return a slice of the rest
let slice: &[A] = iter.as_slice();
println!("{:?}", slice); // [A(6), A(7)]
}
That said, .as_slice is defined on an iter of an existing slice, so the previous answerer was correct in that if you've got, eg. a map iter, you would need to collect it first (so there is something to slice from).
docs: https://doc.rust-lang.org/std/slice/struct.Iter.html#method.as_slice

How to make a vector of received size?

I have a vector data with size unknown at compile time. I want to create a new vector of the exact that size. These variants don't work:
let size = data.len();
let mut try1: Vec<u32> = vec![0 .. size]; //ah, you need compile-time constant
let mut try2: Vec<u32> = Vec::new(size); //ah, there is no constructors with arguments
I'm a bit frustrated - there is no any information in Rust API, book, reference or rustbyexample.com about how to do such simple base task with vector.
This solution works but I don't think it is good to do so, it is strange to generate elements one by one and I don't have need in any exact values of elements:
let mut temp: Vec<u32> = range(0u32, data.len() as u32).collect();
The recommended way of doing this is in fact to form an iterator and collect it to a vector. What you want is not precisely clear, however; if you want [0, 1, 2, …, size - 1], you would create a range and collect it to a vector:
let x = (0..size).collect::<Vec<_>>();
(range(0, size) is better written (0..size) now; the range function will be disappearing from the prelude soon.)
If you wish a vector of zeroes, you would instead write it thus:
let x = std::iter::repeat(0).take(size).collect::<Vec<_>>();
If you merely want to preallocate the appropriate amount of space but not push values onto the vector, Vec::with_capacity(capacity) is what you want.
You should also consider whether you need it to be a vector or whether you can work directly with the iterator.
You can use Vec::with_capacity() constructor followed by an unsafe set_len() call:
let n = 128;
let v: Vec<u32> = Vec::with_capacity(n);
unsafe { v.set_len(n); }
v[12] = 64; // won't panic
This way the vector will "extend" over the uninitialized memory. If you're going to use it as a buffer it is a valid approach, as long as the type of elements is Copy (primitives are ok, but it will break horribly if the type has a destructor).

Resources