How to modify my constructor in order to accept either a slice or a reference to array or vector - rust

Question

This is a simplified example of my code:
#[derive(Debug, Clone, Copy)]
enum Data<'a> {
I32(&'a [i32]),
F64(&'a [f64]),
}
impl<'a> From<&'a [i32]> for Data<'a> {
fn from(v: &'a [i32]) -> Data<'a> {
Data::I32(v)
}
}
impl<'a> From<&'a [f64]> for Data<'a> {
fn from(v: &'a [f64]) -> Data<'a> {
Data::F64(v)
}
}
#[derive(Debug, Clone, Copy)]
struct DataVar<'a> {
name: &'a str,
data: Data<'a>,
}
impl<'a> DataVar<'a> {
fn new<T>(name: &'a str, data: T) -> Self
where
T: Into<Data<'a>>,
{
Self {
name,
data: data.into(),
}
}
}
First of all, considering that I need to cast different DataVars to the same vector, and I would like to avoid using trait objects, do you think my implementation is correct or do you have suggestions for improvement?
Now my main question. I can define new DataVars passing a slice, for instance as follows:
let x = [1, 2, 3];
let xvar = DataVar::new("x", &x[..]);
How can I modify my constructor so that it works not only with a slice, but also with a reference to array or vector? For instance I would like the following to work as well:
let x = [1, 2, 3];
let xvar = DataVar::new("x", &x);
EDIT:
Now I tried implementing the same code using a trait object instead of an enum, but the result is even worse... isn't there really any solution to this?
trait Data: std::fmt::Debug {}
impl Data for &[i32] {}
impl Data for &[f64] {}
#[derive(Debug, Clone, Copy)]
struct DataVar<'a> {
name: &'a str,
data: &'a dyn Data,
}
impl<'a> DataVar<'a> {
fn new<T>(name: &'a str, data: &'a T) -> Self
where
T: Data,
{
Self { name, data }
}
}
let x = [1, 2, 3];
let xvar = DataVar::new("x", &&x[..]);

Answer 1

To me, AsRef doesn't seem to be the right abstraction for two reasons: first, because it's possible (if unlikely) for a type to implement both AsRef<[i32]> and AsRef<[f64]>, and it's not clear what should happen in that case; and second, because there's already a built-in language feature (coercion) that can turn Vec<T> or &[T; n] into &[T], and you're not taking advantage of it.
What I'd like is to write a new function that looks basically like this:
fn new<T>(name: &'a str, data: &'a [T]) -> Self
where
// what goes here?
This will automatically work with &[T; n], &Vec<T>, &Cow<T>, etc. if we can tell the compiler what to do with T. It makes sense that you could make a trait that knows how to convert &'a [Self] to Data and is implemented for i32 and f64, so let's do that:
trait Item: Sized {
fn into_data<'a>(v: &'a [Self]) -> Data<'a>;
}
impl Item for i32 {
fn into_data<'a>(v: &'a [i32]) -> Data<'a> {
Data::I32(v)
}
}
impl Item for f64 {
fn into_data<'a>(v: &'a [f64]) -> Data<'a> {
Data::F64(v)
}
}
The trait bound on new becomes trivial:
impl<'a> DataVar<'a> {
fn new<T>(name: &'a str, data: &'a [T]) -> Self
where
T: Item,
{
Self {
name,
data: T::into_data(data),
}
}
}
I find this more readable than the version with From and AsRef, but if you still want From, you can easily add it with a generic impl:
impl<'a, T> From<&'a [T]> for Data<'a>
where
T: Item,
{
fn from(v: &'a [T]) -> Self {
T::into_data(v)
}
}

Answer 2

We can use the AsRef trait to convert references to arrays or vectors to slices. AsRef is a generic trait, so we need to introduce a second type parameter to represent the "intermediate type" (the slice type). After calling as_ref, we've got a slice that can be converted to a Data using into.
impl<'a> DataVar<'a> {
fn new<T, U>(name: &'a str, data: &'a T) -> Self
where
T: AsRef<U> + ?Sized,
U: ?Sized + 'a,
&'a U: Into<Data<'a>>,
{
Self {
name,
data: data.as_ref().into(),
}
}
}
Note however that the data parameter is now a reference: this is necessary because the lifetime of the reference returned by as_ref is bound by the lifetime of the self parameter passed to as_ref. If we changed the parameter back to data: T, then data.as_ref() now implicitly references data in order to call as_ref, which expects a shared reference to self (&self). But data here is a local parameter, which means that the lifetime of the reference created by this implicit referencing operation is limited to the local function, and so is the reference returned by data.as_ref(). This lifetime is shorter than 'a, so we can't store it in the DataVar and return it.
If you need to handle data values that are not references in addition to values that are references, this solution cannot support that, unfortunately.

Answer 3

This is actually the best solution for my case:
impl<'a> DataVar<'a> {
fn new<T, U>(name: &'a str, data: &'a T) -> Self
where
T: AsRef<[U]> + ?Sized,
U: 'a,
&'a [U]: Into<Data<'a>>,
{
Self {
name,
data: data.as_ref().into(),
}
}
}
It works with slices, references to vectors, and references to arrays up to length 32 which implement AsRef<[T]> https://doc.rust-lang.org/beta/std/convert/trait.AsRef.html
Thanks #Francis for your hints!

Answer 4

Actually, this is IMHO the best solution... so similar to my initial code, I just needed a small fix in the new constructor:
#[derive(Debug, Clone, Copy)]
enum Data<'a> {
I32(&'a [i32]),
F64(&'a [f64]),
}
impl<'a> From<&'a [i32]> for Data<'a> {
fn from(data: &'a [i32]) -> Data<'a> {
Data::I32(data)
}
}
impl<'a> From<&'a [f64]> for Data<'a> {
fn from(data: &'a [f64]) -> Data<'a> {
Data::F64(data)
}
}
#[derive(Debug, Clone, Copy)]
struct DataVar<'a> {
name: &'a str,
data: Data<'a>,
}
impl<'a> DataVar<'a> {
fn new<T>(name: &'a str, data: &'a [T]) -> Self
where
&'a [T]: Into<Data<'a>>,
{
Self {
name,
data: data.into(),
}
}
}

Answer 5

#trentcl your solution is brilliant! Now I see how to leverage coercion.
However I tweaked it a little bit as follows, I will finally use this code unless you see any drawbacks in it, thanks!
#[derive(Debug, Clone, Copy)]
enum Data<'a> {
I32(&'a [i32]),
F64(&'a [f64]),
}
trait IntoData<'a>: Sized {
fn into_data(&self) -> Data<'a>;
}
impl<'a> IntoData<'a> for &'a [i32] {
fn into_data(&self) -> Data<'a> {
Data::I32(&self)
}
}
impl<'a> IntoData<'a> for &'a [f64] {
fn into_data(&self) -> Data<'a> {
Data::F64(&self)
}
}
#[derive(Debug, Clone, Copy)]
struct DataVar<'a> {
name: &'a str,
data: Data<'a>,
}
impl<'a> DataVar<'a> {
fn new<T>(name: &'a str, data: &'a [T]) -> Self
where
&'a [T]: IntoData<'a>,
{
Self {
name,
data: data.into_data(),
}
}
}