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Generics

- Generics are a way to define functions, structs, enums, and methods that work with any type

Driptanil DattaSoftware Developer

Mar 202510 min read

Generics

Generics are a way to define functions, structs, enums, and methods that work with any type
Generics allows us to reduce code duplication
Does not affect performance because Rust uses monomorphization to create specific implementations of generic code at compile time
T is a generic type parameter

fn main() {
    let number_list = vec![34, 50, 25, 100, 65];
 
    let largest = get_largest(number_list);
 
    println!("The largest number is {}", largest);
}
 
fn get_largest<T>(number_list: Vec<T>) -> T {
    let mut largest = number_list[0];
 
    for &number in number_list.iter() {
        if number > largest {
            largest = number;
        }
    }
 
    largest
}

⛔

Error: binary operation > cannot be applied to type T

fn main() {
    let number_list = vec![34, 50, 25, 100, 65];
 
    let largest = get_largest(number_list);
 
    println!("The largest number is {}", largest);
}
 
fn get_largest<T>(number_list: Vec<T>) -> T {
    let mut largest = number_list[0];
 
    for &number in number_list.iter() {
        if number > largest {
            largest = number;
        }
    }
 
    largest
}

fn main() {
    let number_list = vec![34, 50, 25, 100, 65];
 
    let largest = get_largest(number_list);
 
    println!("The largest number is {}", largest);
}
 
fn get_largest<T: PartialOrd + Copy>(number_list: Vec<T>) -> T {
    let mut largest = number_list[0];
 
    for &number in number_list.iter() {
        if number > largest {
            largest = number;
        }
    }
 
    largest
}

PartialOrd trait is used to compare values
Copy trait is used to copy values

struct Point<T> {
    x: T,
    y: T,
}
fn main() {
    let integer = Point { x: 5, y: 10 };
    let float = Point { x: 1.0, y: 4.0 };
 
    println!("integer.x = {}", integer.x);
    println!("float.x = {}", float.x);
}

Point struct with generic type T
Problem: both x and y must have the same type

struct Point<T, U> {
    x: T,
    y: U,
}
 
fn main() {
    let integer = Point { x: 5, y: 1.0 };
    let float = Point { x: 1.0, y: 4.0 };
 
    println!("integer.x = {}", integer.x);
    println!("float.x = {}", float.x);
}

Option & Result enums are generics too

struct Point<T> {
    x: T,
    y: T,
}
 
impl<T> Point<T> {
    fn x(&self) -> &T {
        &self.x
    }
}
 
impl Point<f64> {
    fn y(&self) -> &f64 {
        &self.y
    }
}
 
fn main() {
    let p = Point { x: 5, y: 10 };
 
    p.x();
 
    let p = Point { x: 5.0, y: 10.0 };
    p.y();
 
    println!("p.x = {}", p.x());
}

y() method is only available for Point<f64>

struct Point<T, U> {
    x: T,
    y: U,
}
 
impl<T, U> Point<T, U> {
    fn mixup<V, W>(self, other: Point<V, W>) -> Point<T, W> {
        Point {
            x: self.x,
            y: other.y,
        }
    }
}
 
fn main() {
    let p1 = Point { x: 5, y: 10.4 };
    let p2 = Point { x: "Hello", y: 'c' };
 
    let p3 = p1.mixup(p2);
 
    println!("p3.x = {}, p3.y = {}", p3.x, p3.y);
}

mixup method is used to mix two Point instances
impl<T, U> Point<T, U> is used to define methods for Point struct
fn mixup<V, W>(self, other: Point<V, W>) -> Point<T, W> is a method that takes another Point instance and returns a new Point instance

8. Error Handling 10. Traits