73 lines
2.4 KiB
Markdown
73 lines
2.4 KiB
Markdown
% Coercions
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Types can implicitly be coerced to change in certain contexts. These changes are
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generally just *weakening* of types, largely focused around pointers and lifetimes.
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They mostly exist to make Rust "just work" in more cases, and are largely harmless.
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Here's all the kinds of coercion:
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Coercion is allowed between the following types:
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* Subtyping: `T` to `U` if `T` is a [subtype](lifetimes.html#subtyping-and-variance)
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of `U`
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* Transitivity: `T_1` to `T_3` where `T_1` coerces to `T_2` and `T_2` coerces to `T_3`
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* Pointer Weakening:
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* `&mut T` to `&T`
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* `*mut T` to `*const T`
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* `&T` to `*const T`
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* `&mut T` to `*mut T`
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* Unsizing: `T` to `U` if `T` implements `CoerceUnsized<U>`
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`CoerceUnsized<Pointer<U>> for Pointer<T> where T: Unsize<U>` is implemented
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for all pointer types (including smart pointers like Box and Rc). Unsize is
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only implemented automatically, and enables the following transformations:
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* `[T, ..n]` => `[T]`
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* `T` => `Trait` where `T: Trait`
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* `SubTrait` => `Trait` where `SubTrait: Trait` (TODO: is this now implied by the previous?)
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* `Foo<..., T, ...>` => `Foo<..., U, ...>` where:
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* `T: Unsize<U>`
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* `Foo` is a struct
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* Only the last field has type `T`
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* `T` is not part of the type of any other fields
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Coercions occur at a *coercion site*. Any location that is explicitly typed
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will cause a coercion to its type. If inference is necessary, the coercion will
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not be performed. Exhaustively, the coercion sites for an expression `e` to
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type `U` are:
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* let statements, statics, and consts: `let x: U = e`
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* Arguments to functions: `takes_a_U(e)`
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* Any expression that will be returned: `fn foo() -> U { e }`
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* Struct literals: `Foo { some_u: e }`
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* Array literals: `let x: [U; 10] = [e, ..]`
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* Tuple literals: `let x: (U, ..) = (e, ..)`
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* The last expression in a block: `let x: U = { ..; e }`
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Note that we do not perform coercions when matching traits (except for
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receivers, see below). If there is an impl for some type `U` and `T` coerces to
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`U`, that does not constitute an implementation for `T`. For example, the
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following will not type check, even though it is OK to coerce `t` to `&T` and
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there is an impl for `&T`:
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```rust
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trait Trait {}
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fn foo<X: Trait>(t: X) {}
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impl<'a> Trait for &'a i32 {}
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fn main() {
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let t: &mut i32 = &mut 0;
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foo(t);
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}
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```
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```text
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<anon>:10:5: 10:8 error: the trait `Trait` is not implemented for the type `&mut i32` [E0277]
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<anon>:10 foo(t);
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^~~
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```
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