Document the behaviour of infinite iterators on potentially-computable methods

It’s not entirely clear from the current documentation what behaviour
calling a method such as `min` on an infinite iterator like `RangeFrom`
is. One might expect this to terminate, but in fact, for infinite
iterators, `min` is always nonterminating (at least in the standard
library). This adds a quick note about this behaviour for clarification.
This commit is contained in:
varkor 2018-01-18 15:28:10 +00:00
parent da569fa9dd
commit fdfb964a82
2 changed files with 18 additions and 0 deletions

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@ -24,6 +24,10 @@ fn _assert_is_object_safe(_: &Iterator<Item=()>) {}
/// This is the main iterator trait. For more about the concept of iterators
/// generally, please see the [module-level documentation]. In particular, you
/// may want to know how to [implement `Iterator`][impl].
///
/// Note: Methods on infinite iterators that generally require traversing every
/// element to produce a result may not terminate, even on traits for which a
/// result is determinable in finite time.
///
/// [module-level documentation]: index.html
/// [impl]: index.html#implementing-iterator

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@ -297,8 +297,22 @@
//! ```
//!
//! This will print the numbers `0` through `4`, each on their own line.
//!
//! Bear in mind that methods on infinite iterators, even those for which a
//! result can be computed in finite time, may not terminate. Specifically,
//! methods such as [`min`], which in the general case require traversing
//! every element in the iterator, are likely never to terminate for any
//! infinite iterators.
//!
//! ```
//! let positives = 1..;
//! let least = positives.min().unwrap(); // Oh no! An infinite loop!
//! // `positives.min` causes an infinite loop, so we won't reach this point!
//! println!("The least positive number is {}.", least);
//! ```
//!
//! [`take`]: trait.Iterator.html#method.take
//! [`min`]: trait.Iterator.html#method.min
#![stable(feature = "rust1", since = "1.0.0")]