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First draft of primitive types
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I moved slices to references, since they are references, and explaining
them right now is just more complex. I might do that with `&str` too...
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steveklabnik committed Dec 18, 2015
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210 changes: 209 additions & 1 deletion src/primitive-types.md
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Expand Up @@ -242,9 +242,217 @@ That’s really all there is to say about that!

## Arrays

## Slices
So far, we’ve only represented single values in a binding.
Sometimes, though, it’s useful to have more than one value.
These kinds of data structures are called ‘collections’, and arrays are the ones we’ll learn about first.
Arrays look like this:

```rust
fn main() {
let a = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5];
}
```

An array’s type consists of the type of the elements it contains, as well as the length:

```rust
fn main() {
let a: [i32; 5] = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5];
}
```

An array is a single chunk of memory, allocated on the stack.

We can access elements of an array using indexing:

```rust
fn main() {
let a = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5];

let first = a[0];
let second = a[1];
}
```

In this example, `first` will hold the value `1`, and `second` will be bound to `2`.
Note that these values are copied out of the array; if the array changes, these bindings will not.
Here’s an example, which also shows us how we can modify elements of the array:

```rust
fn main() {
let mut a = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5];

let first = a[0];

a[0] = 7;

println!("The value of first is: {}", first);
}
```

Running this example will show that `first` is still `1`.
If we didn’t want a copy, but instead wanted to refer to the first element, whatever its value was, we need a new concept.
We’ll talk about ‘references’ in Section 4.

One last thing: now that we are modifying the array, `a` needs to be declared `mut`.

Arrays are our first real data structure, and so there’s a few other concepts that we haven’t covered in full yet.
There are two: the `panic!` macro, and a new way of printing things: `Debug`.

### Panic

We showed what happens when you access elements of an array, but what if we give an invalid index?

```rust,should_panic
fn main() {
let a = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5];
let invalid = a[10];
println!("The value of invalid is: {}", invalid);
}
```

If we run this example, we will get an error.
Let’s re-use our `functions` project from before.
Change your `src/main.rs` to look like the example, and run it:

```bash
$ cargo run
Compiling functions v0.1.0 (file:///home/steve/tmp/functions)
Running `target/debug/functions`
thread ‘<main>’ panicked at ‘index out of bounds: the len is 5 but the index is 10’, src/main.rs:4
Process didn’t exit successfully: `target/debug/functions` (exit code: 101)
```

It says that our thread panicked, and that our program didn’t exit successfully.
There’s also a reason: we had a length of five, but an index of 10.

A ‘panic’ can also be induced manually, with the `panic!` macro:

```rust,should_panic
fn main() {
panic!("Oh no!");
}
```

When the `panic!` macro runs, it will cause a panic.
When a Rust program panics, it starts a kind of controlled crash.
The current thread of execution will stop entirely.
As such, panics are reserved for serious, program-ending errors.
They’re not a general error-handling mechanism.

So why did this code panic?
Well, arrays know how many elements they hold.
When we access an element via indexing, Rust will check that the index is less than the length.
If it’s greater, it will panic, as something is very wrong.
This is our first example of Rust’s safety principles in action.
In many low-level languages, this kind of check is not done.
If you have an incorrect index, invalid memory can be accessed.
Rust protects us against this kind of error.

**Steve’s note: this next bit might be our first ‘advanced’ section, on get()?**

### Debug

So far, we’ve been printing values using `{}`.
If we try that with an array, though...

```ignore
fn main() {
let a = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5];
println!("a is: {}", a);
}
```

... we will get an error:

```bash
$ cargo run
Compiling functions v0.1.0 (file:///home/steve/tmp/functions)
src/main.rs:4:25: 4:26 error: the trait `core::fmt::Display` is not implemented for the type `[_; 5]` [E0277]
src/main.rs:4 println!(“a is {}”, a);
^
<std macros>:2:25: 2:56 note: in this expansion of format_args!
<std macros>:3:1: 3:54 note: in this expansion of print! (defined in <std macros>)
src/main.rs:4:5: 4:28 note: in this expansion of println! (defined in <std macros>)
src/main.rs:4:25: 4:26 help: run `rustc --explain E0277` to see a detailed explanation
src/main.rs:4:25: 4:26 note: `[_; 5]` cannot be formatted with the default formatter; try using `:?` instead if you are using a format string
src/main.rs:4:25: 4:26 note: required by `core::fmt::Display::fmt`
error: aborting due to previous error
```
Whew! The core of the error is this part: the trait `core::fmt::Display` is not implemented.
We haven’t discussed traits yet, so this is bound to be confusing!
Here’s all we need to know for now: `println!` can do many kinds of formatting.
By default, `{}` implements a kind of formatting known as `Display`: output for end-users.
The primitive types we’ve seen so far implement `Display`, as there’s only one way you’d show a `1` to a user.
But with arrays, the output is less clear.
Do you want commas or not?
What about the `[]`s?
Due to these questions, more complex types in the standard library do not implement `Display` formatting.
There is another kind of formatting, `Deubg`, which is a bit different: output for programmers and debuggers.
We can ask `println!` to use `Debug` formatting with `:?`:
```rust
fn main() {
let a = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5];

println!("a is {:?}", a);
}
```
This will work:
```bash
$ cargo run
Compiling functions v0.1.0 (file:///home/steve/tmp/functions)
Running `target/debug/functions`
a is [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
```
You’ll see this repeated later, with other types.
And we’ll cover traits fully later in the book, Section 9.
## char
We’ve only worked with numbers so far, but what about letters?
Rust’s most primitive alphabetic type is the `char`:
```rust
fn main() {
let c = 'z';
let z = '';
}
```
Rust’s `char` represents a [Unicode Scalar Value], which means that it can represent a lot more than just ASCII.
“Character” isn’t really a concept in Unicode, however: your human intutition for what a ‘character’ is may not match up with a `char`.
It also means that `char`s are four bytes each.
[Unicode Scalar Value]: http://www.unicode.org/glossary/#unicode_scalar_value
The single quotes are important: to define a literal single character, we use single quotes.
If we used double quotes, we’d be defining a `&str`. Let’s talk about that next!
## str
We can declare literal strings with `"`s. We’ve seen them already, with `println!`:
```rust
fn main() {
println!("println! takes a literal string as an argument.");
let s = "We can also create bindings to string literals.";
let s: &str = "Here’s one with a type annotation.";
}
```
String literals are immutable, and of a fixed length.
Rust has a second string type, `String`, that we’ll discuss in section 8.
`&str`s are UTF-8 encoded.
26 changes: 26 additions & 0 deletions src/references-and-borrowing.md
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# References and Borrowing


## Slices

We saw how to use indexing to get a single element out of an array.
But we can also use indexing to get a reference to multiple elements:

```rust
fn main() {
let a = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5];

let s = &a[0..2];

println!("The value of s is: {:?}", s);
}
```

Let’s try running it:

```bash
$ cargo run
Compiling functions v0.1.0 (file:///home/steve/tmp/functions)
Running `target/debug/functions`
The value of s is: [1, 2]
```


This guide is two of three presenting Rust’s ownership system. This is one of
Rust’s most unique and compelling features, with which Rust developers should
become quite acquainted. Ownership is how Rust achieves its largest goal,
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