rust/src/doc/trpl/drop.md
Steve Klabnik 9a3e98be1c TRPL: Drop
2015-05-12 15:10:44 -04:00

68 lines
1.6 KiB
Markdown
Raw Blame History

This file contains ambiguous Unicode characters

This file contains Unicode characters that might be confused with other characters. If you think that this is intentional, you can safely ignore this warning. Use the Escape button to reveal them.

% Drop
Now that weve discussed traits, lets talk about a particular trait provided
by the Rust standard library, [`Drop`][drop]. The `Drop` trait provides a way
to run some code when a value goes out of scope. For example:
[drop]: ../std/ops/trait.Drop.html
```rust
struct HasDrop;
impl Drop for HasDrop {
fn drop(&mut self) {
println!("Dropping!");
}
}
fn main() {
let x = HasDrop;
// do stuff
} // x goes out of scope here
```
When `x` goes out of scope at the end of `main()`, the code for `Drop` will
run. `Drop` has one method, which is also called `drop()`. It takes a mutable
reference to `self`.
Thats it! The mechanics of `Drop` are very simple, but there are some
subtleties. For example, values are dropped in the opposite order they are
declared. Heres another example:
```rust
struct Firework {
strength: i32,
}
impl Drop for Firework {
fn drop(&mut self) {
println!("BOOM times {}!!!", self.strength);
}
}
fn main() {
let firecracker = Firework { strength: 1 };
let tnt = Firework { strength: 100 };
}
```
This will output:
```text
BOOM times 100!!!
BOOM times 1!!!
```
The TNT goes off before the firecracker does, because it was declared
afterwards. Last in, first out.
So what is `Drop` good for? Generally, `Drop` is used to clean up any resources
associated with a `struct`. For example, the [`Arc<T>` type][arc] is a
reference-counted type. When `Drop` is called, it will decrement the reference
count, and if the total number of references is zero, will clean up the
underlying value.
[arc]: ../std/sync/struct.Arc.html