Arrays and Slices: a collection of objects of the same type T

  1. An array is a collection of objects of the same type T, stored in contiguous memory.
  • Arrays are created using brackets []
  • and their length, which is known at compile time, is part of their type signature [T; length].
  1. Slices are similar to arrays, but their length is not known at compile time.
  • Instead, a slice is a two-word object
  • the first word is a pointer to the data
  • and the second word is the length of the slice.
  • The word size is the same as usize, determined by the processor architecture e.g. 64 bits on an x86-64.
  • Slices can be used to borrow a section of an array, and have the type signature &[T].

Array compares to slice

use std::mem;

// This function borrows a slice
fn analyze_slice(slice: &[i32]) {
    println!("first element of the slice: {}", slice[0]);
    println!("the slice has {} elements", slice.len());
}

fn main() {
    // Fixed-size array (type signature is superfluous)
    let xs: [i32; 5] = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5];

    // All elements can be initialized to the same value
    let ys: [i32; 500] = [0; 500];

    // Indexing starts at 0
    println!("first element of the array: {}", xs[0]);
    println!("second element of the array: {}", xs[1]);

    // `len` returns the count of elements in the array
    println!("number of elements in array: {}", xs.len());

    // Arrays are stack allocated
    println!("array occupies {} bytes", mem::size_of_val(&xs));

    // Arrays can be automatically borrowed as slices
    println!("borrow the whole array as a slice");
    analyze_slice(&xs);

    // Slices can point to a section of an array
    // They are of the form [starting_index..ending_index]
    // starting_index is the first position in the slice
    // ending_index is one more than the last position in the slice
    println!("borrow a section of the array as a slice");
    analyze_slice(&ys[1 .. 4]);

    // Example of empty slice `&[]`
    let empty_array: [u32; 0] = [];
    assert_eq!(&empty_array, &[]);
    assert_eq!(&empty_array, &[][..]); // same but more verbose

    // Arrays can be safely accessed using `.get`, which returns an
    // `Option`. This can be matched as shown below, or used with
    // `.expect()` if you would like the program to exit with a nice
    // message instead of happily continue.
    for i in 0..xs.len() + 1 { // OOPS, one element too far
        match xs.get(i) {
            Some(xval) => println!("{}: {}", i, xval),
            None => println!("Slow down! {} is too far!", i),
        }
    }

    // Out of bound indexing causes runtime error
    //println!("{}", xs[5]);
}
  1. Fixed-size array (type signature is superfluous)
  2. All elements can be initialized to the same value
  3. Indexing starts at 0
  4. len returns the count of elements in the array
  5. Arrays are stack allocated
  6. Arrays can be automatically borrowed as slices
  7. Slices can point to a section of an array
  8. They are of the form [starting_index..ending_index]
  9. starting_index is the first position in the slice
  10. ending_index is one more than the last position in the slice