Immutable Borrows for the Same Data Structure - rust

I'm trying to call the "splice" method twice on the same vec.
I'm aware why it fails: the rules make sense. What I don't know is how to accomplish what I want. Is there a way to prove to the compiler that nothing will go wrong?
fn main() {
let mut x = vec![1, 2, 3, 4, 5];
let y = x.splice(2.., []);
let z = x.splice(2.., []);
println!("{:?}", x);
println!("{:?}", y);
println!("{:?}", z);
}

You can't prove that nothing will go wrong with your code, because with something will go wrong the way you have this written!
The value returned by splice() is a bit special. It's a Splice struct. The vector still owns the elements you asked it to remove immediately after splice() returns.
Splice is an Iterator. When you iterate it, it moves the values out of the original vector to produce them.
When the Splice value is dropped, the replacement items are enumerated and moved into the vector. So while the Splice exists, the splice operation is in a partially-completed state.
Now it should be clear why you can't call .splice() again while a Splice from the same vector still exists -- the vector is still mutably borrowed, because the splice isn't complete.
To fix your problem, you need to drop any extant Splice value before attempting to do anything else with the vector. It looks like you want to move the removed elements into a new vector, so you can just .collect() the Splices. Doing this in a single statement drops the Splice at the end of the statement, because it is a temporary.
let y = x.splice(2.., []).collect::<Vec<_>>();
let z = x.splice(2.., []).collect::<Vec<_>>();
(Playground)

Related

How to prepend a slice to a Vec [duplicate]

This question already has answers here:
Efficiently insert or replace multiple elements in the middle or at the beginning of a Vec?
(3 answers)
Closed 5 years ago.
I was expecting a Vec::insert_slice(index, slice) method — a solution for strings (String::insert_str()) does exist.
I know about Vec::insert(), but that inserts only one element at a time, not a slice. Alternatively, when the prepended slice is a Vec one can append to it instead, but this does not generalize. The idiomatic solution probably uses Vec::splice(), but using iterators as in the example makes me scratch my head.
Secondly, the whole concept of prepending has seemingly been exorcised from the docs. There isn't a single mention. I would appreciate comments as to why. Note that relatively obscure methods like Vec::swap_remove() do exist.
My typical use case consists of indexed byte strings.
String::insert_str makes use of the fact that a string is essentially a Vec<u8>. It reallocates the underlying buffer, moves all the initial bytes to the end, then adds the new bytes to the beginning.
This is not generally safe and can not be directly added to Vec because during the copy the Vec is no longer in a valid state — there are "holes" in the data.
This doesn't matter for String because the data is u8 and u8 doesn't implement Drop. There's no such guarantee for an arbitrary T in a Vec, but if you are very careful to track your state and clean up properly, you can do the same thing — this is what splice does!
the whole concept of prepending has seemingly been exorcised
I'd suppose this is because prepending to a Vec is a poor idea from a performance standpoint. If you need to do it, the naïve case is straight-forward:
fn prepend<T>(v: Vec<T>, s: &[T]) -> Vec<T>
where
T: Clone,
{
let mut tmp: Vec<_> = s.to_owned();
tmp.extend(v);
tmp
}
This has a bit higher memory usage as we need to have enough space for two copies of v.
The splice method accepts an iterator of new values and a range of values to replace. In this case, we don't want to replace anything, so we give an empty range of the index we want to insert at. We also need to convert the slice into an iterator of the appropriate type:
let s = &[1, 2, 3];
let mut v = vec![4, 5];
v.splice(0..0, s.iter().cloned());
splice's implementation is non-trivial, but it efficiently does the tracking we need. After removing a chunk of values, it then reuses that chunk of memory for the new values. It also moves the tail of the vector around (maybe a few times, depending on the input iterator). The Drop implementation of Slice ensures that things will always be in a valid state.
I'm more surprised that VecDeque doesn't support it, as it's designed to be more efficient about modifying both the head and tail of the data.
Taking into consideration what Shepmaster said, you could implement a function prepending a slice with Copyable elements to a Vec just like String::insert_str() does in the following way:
use std::ptr;
unsafe fn prepend_slice<T: Copy>(vec: &mut Vec<T>, slice: &[T]) {
let len = vec.len();
let amt = slice.len();
vec.reserve(amt);
ptr::copy(vec.as_ptr(),
vec.as_mut_ptr().offset((amt) as isize),
len);
ptr::copy(slice.as_ptr(),
vec.as_mut_ptr(),
amt);
vec.set_len(len + amt);
}
fn main() {
let mut v = vec![4, 5, 6];
unsafe { prepend_slice(&mut v, &[1, 2, 3]) }
assert_eq!(&v, &[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]);
}

Not live long enough with CSV and dataflow

fn main() {
timely::execute_from_args(std::env::args().skip(0), move |worker| {
let (mut input, probe) = worker.dataflow::<_, _, _>(|scope| {
let (input, data) = scope.new_collection();
let probe = data.inspect(|x| println!("observed data: {:?}", x)).probe();
(input, probe)
});
let mut rdr = csv::ReaderBuilder::new()
.has_headers(false)
.flexible(true)
.delimiter(b'\t')
.from_reader(io::stdin());
for result in rdr.deserialize() {
let record = result.expect("a CSV record");
let mut vec = Vec::new();
for i in 0..13 {
vec.push(&record[i]);
}
input.insert(vec);
}
});
}
The error is record can not live long enough. I try to read the CSV record and read it as a vector. Then insert records in to the data flow. I can run them separate. I can read the CSv as vector and use the data flow in other place.
The problem is that you are pushing to the Vec a borrowed value: &record[i]. The & means borrow, and as a consequence the original value record must outlive the borrower vec.
That might seem fine (both are in the for body, and thus both have the same lifetime, i.e., they both live inside the for body and therefore none outlive each other), but this doesn't happen because the line input.insert(vec) is moving vec. What this means is that vec now becomes owned by input and hence it lives as long as input (as far as I understand). Now, because input is outside the for body, the moved vec lives as long as input and therefore outlives the record[i]s.
There are a few solutions, but all of them try to remove the dependency between record and input:
If the record is an array of primitive values, or something that implements the Copy trait, you can simply omit the borrow and the value will be copied into the vector: vec.push(record[i]).
Clone the record value into the vector: vec.push(record[i].clone()). This forces the creation of a clone, which as above, the vec becomes the owner, avoiding the borrow.
If the elements in the record array don't implement Copy nor Clone, you have to move it. Because the value is in an array, you have to move the array fully (it can't have elements that haven't been removed). One solution is to transform it into an iterator that moves out the values one by one, and then push them into the vector:
for element in record.into_iter().take(13) {
vec.push(element)
}
Replace the record value with a different value. One final solution in order to move only parts of the array is to replace the element in the array with something else. This means that although you remove an element from the array, you replace it with something else, and the array continues to be valid.
for i in 0..13 {
vec.push(std::mem::replace(&record[i], Default::default()));
}
You can replace Default::default() with another value if you want to.
I hope this helps. I'm still a noob in Rust, so improvements and critique on the answer are accepted :)

Iterating through a Vec within a struct - cannot move out of borrowed content

I am writing a function for a struct which contains a Vec where I attempt to iterate through the Vec:
struct Object {
pub v: Vec<f32>,
}
impl Object {
pub fn sum(&self) -> f32 {
let mut sum = 0.0;
for e in self.v {
sum += e;
}
sum
}
}
However I get the following error:
error[E0507]: cannot move out of borrowed content
--> src/lib.rs:8:18
|
8 | for e in self.v {
| ^^^^ cannot move out of borrowed content
My understanding is that since self is borrowed and that the for loop iteration is attempting to move the elements of v out into e.
From the error code, I read that a potential solution is to take ownership but I'm not quite certain how to do that.
I'm not trying to modify the vector or its elements. I just want to use the elements to run some computation.
The line: for e in self.v is essentially saying for e in (*self).v; you're attempting to iterate over the vector by move, invoking its IntoIterator trait. This would destroy the vector completely, moving all the numbers out of it forever, which is not only not what you want, but also not allowed in this context because you're only allowed to read it.
You actually want to iterate over it by reference. There are two ways to do this:
for e in &self.v {
// ...
}
This is essentially saying &((*self).v), since the . auto-dereferences you need to tell the compiler that you actually just want to borrow the vector.
or
for e in self.v.iter() {
// ...
}
This may look funny because iter takes an &self. Why? Well, the compiler also auto-references if you call a function on a value that takes a reference. This is essentially (&((*self).v)).iter(), but that would suck to write so the compiler helps out.
So why doesn't it auto-reference in the for loop? Well, for x in self.v is a valid statement, and that may be what you intended to write. It's usually more important for the compiler to tell you that what you want want is impossible than assume you wanted something else. With the auto (de-)referencing above, no such ambiguity exists.
The former solution is preferred, but the latter is necessary if you want to use an iterator adapter.
Speaking of which, your sum already exists: just write self.v.iter().sum().

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

String append, cannot move out of dereference of '&'pointer

I'm having trouble combining two strings, I'm very new to rust so If there is an easier way to do this please feel free to show me.
My function loops through a vector of string tuples (String,String), what I want to do is be able to combine these two strings elements into one string. Here's what I have:
for tup in bmp.bitmap_picture.mut_iter() {
let &(ref x, ref y) = tup;
let res_string = x;
res_string.append(y.as_slice());
}
but I receive the error : error: cannot move out of dereference of '&'-pointer for the line: res_string.append(y.as_slice());
I also tried res_string.append(y.clone().as_slice()); but the exact same error happened, so I'm not sure if that was even right to do.
The function definition of append is:
fn append(self, second: &str) -> String
The plain self indicates by-value semantics. By-value moves the receiver into the method, unless the receiver implements Copy (which String does not). So you have to clone the x rather than the y.
If you want to move out of a vector, you have to use move_iter.
There are a few other improvements possible as well:
let string_pairs = vec![("Foo".to_string(),"Bar".to_string())];
// Option 1: leave original vector intact
let mut strings = Vec::new();
for &(ref x, ref y) in string_pairs.iter() {
let string = x.clone().append(y.as_slice());
strings.push(string);
}
// Option 2: consume original vector
let strings: Vec<String> = string_pairs.move_iter()
.map(|(x, y)| x.append(y.as_slice()))
.collect();
It seems like you might be confusing append, which takes the receiver by value and returns itself, with push_str, which simply mutates the receiver (passed by mutable reference) as you seem to expect. So the simplest fix to your example is to change append to push_str. You'll also need to change "ref x" to "ref mut x" so it can be mutated.

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