Late type in Rust - rust

Question

I'm working with two crates: A and B. I control both. I'd like to create a struct in A that has a field whose type is known only to B (i.e., A is independent of B, but B is dependent on A).
crate_a:
#[derive(Clone)]
pub struct Thing {
pub foo: i32,
pub bar: *const i32,
}
impl Thing {
fn new(x: i32) -> Self {
Thing { foo: x, bar: &0 }
}
}
crate_b:
struct Value {};
fn func1() {
let mut x = A::Thing::new(1);
let y = Value {};
x.bar = &y as *const Value as *const i32;
...
}
fn func2() {
...
let y = unsafe { &*(x.bar as *const Value) };
...
}
This works, but it doesn't feel very "rusty". Is there a cleaner way to do this? I thought about using a trait object, but ran into issues with Clone.
Note: My reason for splitting these out is that the dependencies in B make compilation very slow. Value above is actually from llvm_sys. I'd rather not leak that into A, which has no other dependency on llvm.

Answer 1

The standard way to implement something like this is with generics, which are kind of like type variables: they can be "assigned" a particular type, possibly within some constraints. This is how the standard library can provide types like Vec that work with types that you declare in your crate.
Basically, generics allow Thing to be defined in terms of "some unknown type that will become known later when this type is actually used."
Given the example in your code, it looks like Thing's bar field may or may not be set, which suggests that the built-in Option enum should be used. All you have to do is put a type parameter on Thing and pass that through to Option, like so:
pub mod A {
#[derive(Clone)]
pub struct Thing<T> {
pub foo: i32,
pub bar: Option<T>,
}
impl<T> Thing<T> {
pub fn new(x: i32) -> Self {
Thing { foo: x, bar: None }
}
}
}
pub mod B {
use crate::A;
struct Value;
fn func1() {
let mut x = A::Thing::new(1);
let y = Value;
x.bar = Some(y);
// ...
}
fn func2(x: &A::Thing<Value>) {
// ...
let y: &Value = x.bar.as_ref().unwrap();
// ...
}
}
(Playground)
Here, the x in B::func1() has the type Thing<Value>. You can see with this syntax how Value is substituted for T, which makes the bar field Option<Value>.
If Thing's bar isn't actually supposed to be optional, just write pub bar: T instead, and accept a T in Thing::new() to initialize it:
pub mod A {
#[derive(Clone)]
pub struct Thing<T> {
pub foo: i32,
pub bar: T,
}
impl<T> Thing<T> {
pub fn new(x: i32, y: T) -> Self {
Thing { foo: x, bar: y }
}
}
}
pub mod B {
use crate::A;
struct Value;
fn func1() {
let mut x = A::Thing::new(1, Value);
// ...
}
fn func2(x: &A::Thing<Value>) {
// ...
let y: &Value = &x.bar;
// ...
}
}
(Playground)
Note that the definition of Thing in both of these cases doesn't actually require that T implement Clone; however, Thing<T> will only implement Clone if T also does. #[derive(Clone)] will generate an implementation like:
impl<T> Clone for Thing<T> where T: Clone { /* ... */ }
This can allow your type to be more flexible -- it can now be used in contexts that don't require T to implement Clone, while also being cloneable when T does implement Clone. You get the best of both worlds this way.