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<h2 id="validating-references-with-lifetimes"><a class="header" href="#validating-references-with-lifetimes">Validating References with Lifetimes</a></h2>
<p>Lifetimes are another kind of generic that we’ve already been using. Rather
than ensuring that a type has the behavior we want, lifetimes ensure that
references are valid as long as we need them to be.</p>
<p>One detail we didn’t discuss in the <a href="ch04-02-references-and-borrowing.html#references-and-borrowing">“References and
Borrowing”</a><!-- ignore --> section in Chapter 4 is
that every reference in Rust has a lifetime, which is the scope for which
that reference is valid. Most of the time, lifetimes are implicit and inferred,
just like most of the time, types are inferred. We are only required to
annotate types when multiple types are possible. In a similar way, we must
annotate lifetimes when the lifetimes of references could be related in a few
different ways. Rust requires us to annotate the relationships using generic
lifetime parameters to ensure that the actual references used at runtime will
definitely be valid.</p>
<p>Annotating lifetimes is not even a concept most other programming languages
have, so this is going to feel unfamiliar. Although we won’t cover lifetimes in
their entirety in this chapter, we’ll discuss common ways you might encounter
lifetime syntax so that you can get comfortable with the concept.</p>
<!-- Old headings. Do not remove or links may break. -->
<p><a id="preventing-dangling-references-with-lifetimes"></a></p>
<h3 id="dangling-references"><a class="header" href="#dangling-references">Dangling References</a></h3>
<p>The main aim of lifetimes is to prevent dangling references, which, if they
were allowed to exist, would cause a program to reference data other than the
data it’s intended to reference. Consider the program in Listing 10-16, which
has an outer scope and an inner scope.</p>
<figure class="listing" id="listing-10-16">
<pre><code class="language-rust ignore does_not_compile">fn main() {
let r;
{
let x = 5;
r = &amp;x;
}
println!("r: {r}");
}</code></pre>
<figcaption><a href="#listing-10-16">Listing 10-16</a>: An attempt to use a reference whose value has gone out of scope</figcaption>
</figure>
<section class="note" aria-role="note">
<p>Note: The examples in Listings 10-16, 10-17, and 10-23 declare variables
without giving them an initial value, so the variable name exists in the outer
scope. At first glance, this might appear to be in conflict with Rust having
no null values. However, if we try to use a variable before giving it a value,
we’ll get a compile-time error, which shows that indeed Rust does not allow
null values.</p>
</section>
<p>The outer scope declares a variable named <code>r</code> with no initial value, and the
inner scope declares a variable named <code>x</code> with the initial value of <code>5</code>. Inside
the inner scope, we attempt to set the value of <code>r</code> as a reference to <code>x</code>.
Then, the inner scope ends, and we attempt to print the value in <code>r</code>. This code
won’t compile, because the value that <code>r</code> is referring to has gone out of scope
before we try to use it. Here is the error message:</p>
<pre><code class="language-console">$ cargo run
Compiling chapter10 v0.1.0 (file:///projects/chapter10)
error[E0597]: `x` does not live long enough
--&gt; src/main.rs:6:13
|
5 | let x = 5;
| - binding `x` declared here
6 | r = &amp;x;
| ^^ borrowed value does not live long enough
7 | }
| - `x` dropped here while still borrowed
8 |
9 | println!("r: {r}");
| - borrow later used here
For more information about this error, try `rustc --explain E0597`.
error: could not compile `chapter10` (bin "chapter10") due to 1 previous error
</code></pre>
<p>The error message says that the variable <code>x</code> “does not live long enough.” The
reason is that <code>x</code> will be out of scope when the inner scope ends on line 7.
But <code>r</code> is still valid for the outer scope; because its scope is larger, we say
that it “lives longer.” If Rust allowed this code to work, <code>r</code> would be
referencing memory that was deallocated when <code>x</code> went out of scope, and
anything we tried to do with <code>r</code> wouldn’t work correctly. So, how does Rust
determine that this code is invalid? It uses a borrow checker.</p>
<h3 id="the-borrow-checker"><a class="header" href="#the-borrow-checker">The Borrow Checker</a></h3>
<p>The Rust compiler has a <em>borrow checker</em> that compares scopes to determine
whether all borrows are valid. Listing 10-17 shows the same code as Listing
10-16 but with annotations showing the lifetimes of the variables.</p>
<figure class="listing" id="listing-10-17">
<pre><code class="language-rust ignore does_not_compile">fn main() {
let r; // ---------+-- 'a
// |
{ // |
let x = 5; // -+-- 'b |
r = &amp;x; // | |
} // -+ |
// |
println!("r: {r}"); // |
} // ---------+</code></pre>
<figcaption><a href="#listing-10-17">Listing 10-17</a>: Annotations of the lifetimes of <code>r</code> and <code>x</code>, named <code>'a</code> and <code>'b</code>, respectively</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Here, we’ve annotated the lifetime of <code>r</code> with <code>'a</code> and the lifetime of <code>x</code>
with <code>'b</code>. As you can see, the inner <code>'b</code> block is much smaller than the outer
<code>'a</code> lifetime block. At compile time, Rust compares the size of the two
lifetimes and sees that <code>r</code> has a lifetime of <code>'a</code> but that it refers to memory
with a lifetime of <code>'b</code>. The program is rejected because <code>'b</code> is shorter than
<code>'a</code>: The subject of the reference doesn’t live as long as the reference.</p>
<p>Listing 10-18 fixes the code so that it doesn’t have a dangling reference and
it compiles without any errors.</p>
<figure class="listing" id="listing-10-18">
<pre class="playground"><code class="language-rust edition2024">fn main() {
let x = 5; // ----------+-- 'b
// |
let r = &amp;x; // --+-- 'a |
// | |
println!("r: {r}"); // | |
// --+ |
} // ----------+</code></pre>
<figcaption><a href="#listing-10-18">Listing 10-18</a>: A valid reference because the data has a longer lifetime than the reference</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Here, <code>x</code> has the lifetime <code>'b</code>, which in this case is larger than <code>'a</code>. This
means <code>r</code> can reference <code>x</code> because Rust knows that the reference in <code>r</code> will
always be valid while <code>x</code> is valid.</p>
<p>Now that you know where the lifetimes of references are and how Rust analyzes
lifetimes to ensure that references will always be valid, let’s explore generic
lifetimes in function parameters and return values.</p>
<h3 id="generic-lifetimes-in-functions"><a class="header" href="#generic-lifetimes-in-functions">Generic Lifetimes in Functions</a></h3>
<p>We’ll write a function that returns the longer of two string slices. This
function will take two string slices and return a single string slice. After
we’ve implemented the <code>longest</code> function, the code in Listing 10-19 should
print <code>The longest string is abcd</code>.</p>
<figure class="listing" id="listing-10-19">
<span class="file-name">Filename: src/main.rs</span>
<pre><code class="language-rust ignore">fn main() {
let string1 = String::from("abcd");
let string2 = "xyz";
let result = longest(string1.as_str(), string2);
println!("The longest string is {result}");
}</code></pre>
<figcaption><a href="#listing-10-19">Listing 10-19</a>: A <code>main</code> function that calls the <code>longest</code> function to find the longer of two string slices</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Note that we want the function to take string slices, which are references,
rather than strings, because we don’t want the <code>longest</code> function to take
ownership of its parameters. Refer to <a href="ch04-03-slices.html#string-slices-as-parameters">“String Slices as
Parameters”</a><!-- ignore --> in Chapter 4 for more
discussion about why the parameters we use in Listing 10-19 are the ones we
want.</p>
<p>If we try to implement the <code>longest</code> function as shown in Listing 10-20, it
won’t compile.</p>
<figure class="listing" id="listing-10-20">
<span class="file-name">Filename: src/main.rs</span>
<pre><code class="language-rust ignore does_not_compile"><span class="boring">fn main() {
</span><span class="boring"> let string1 = String::from("abcd");
</span><span class="boring"> let string2 = "xyz";
</span><span class="boring">
</span><span class="boring"> let result = longest(string1.as_str(), string2);
</span><span class="boring"> println!("The longest string is {result}");
</span><span class="boring">}
</span><span class="boring">
</span>fn longest(x: &amp;str, y: &amp;str) -&gt; &amp;str {
if x.len() &gt; y.len() { x } else { y }
}</code></pre>
<figcaption><a href="#listing-10-20">Listing 10-20</a>: An implementation of the <code>longest</code> function that returns the longer of two string slices but does not yet compile</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Instead, we get the following error that talks about lifetimes:</p>
<pre><code class="language-console">$ cargo run
Compiling chapter10 v0.1.0 (file:///projects/chapter10)
error[E0106]: missing lifetime specifier
--&gt; src/main.rs:9:33
|
9 | fn longest(x: &amp;str, y: &amp;str) -&gt; &amp;str {
| ---- ---- ^ expected named lifetime parameter
|
= help: this function's return type contains a borrowed value, but the signature does not say whether it is borrowed from `x` or `y`
help: consider introducing a named lifetime parameter
|
9 | fn longest&lt;'a&gt;(x: &amp;'a str, y: &amp;'a str) -&gt; &amp;'a str {
| ++++ ++ ++ ++
For more information about this error, try `rustc --explain E0106`.
error: could not compile `chapter10` (bin "chapter10") due to 1 previous error
</code></pre>
<p>The help text reveals that the return type needs a generic lifetime parameter
on it because Rust can’t tell whether the reference being returned refers to
<code>x</code> or <code>y</code>. Actually, we don’t know either, because the <code>if</code> block in the body
of this function returns a reference to <code>x</code> and the <code>else</code> block returns a
reference to <code>y</code>!</p>
<p>When we’re defining this function, we don’t know the concrete values that will
be passed into this function, so we don’t know whether the <code>if</code> case or the
<code>else</code> case will execute. We also don’t know the concrete lifetimes of the
references that will be passed in, so we can’t look at the scopes as we did in
Listings 10-17 and 10-18 to determine whether the reference we return will
always be valid. The borrow checker can’t determine this either, because it
doesn’t know how the lifetimes of <code>x</code> and <code>y</code> relate to the lifetime of the
return value. To fix this error, we’ll add generic lifetime parameters that
define the relationship between the references so that the borrow checker can
perform its analysis.</p>
<h3 id="lifetime-annotation-syntax"><a class="header" href="#lifetime-annotation-syntax">Lifetime Annotation Syntax</a></h3>
<p>Lifetime annotations don’t change how long any of the references live. Rather,
they describe the relationships of the lifetimes of multiple references to each
other without affecting the lifetimes. Just as functions can accept any type
when the signature specifies a generic type parameter, functions can accept
references with any lifetime by specifying a generic lifetime parameter.</p>
<p>Lifetime annotations have a slightly unusual syntax: The names of lifetime
parameters must start with an apostrophe (<code>'</code>) and are usually all lowercase
and very short, like generic types. Most people use the name <code>'a</code> for the first
lifetime annotation. We place lifetime parameter annotations after the <code>&amp;</code> of a
reference, using a space to separate the annotation from the reference’s type.</p>
<p>Here are some examples—a reference to an <code>i32</code> without a lifetime parameter, a
reference to an <code>i32</code> that has a lifetime parameter named <code>'a</code>, and a mutable
reference to an <code>i32</code> that also has the lifetime <code>'a</code>:</p>
<pre><code class="language-rust ignore">&amp;i32 // a reference
&amp;'a i32 // a reference with an explicit lifetime
&amp;'a mut i32 // a mutable reference with an explicit lifetime</code></pre>
<p>One lifetime annotation by itself doesn’t have much meaning, because the
annotations are meant to tell Rust how generic lifetime parameters of multiple
references relate to each other. Let’s examine how the lifetime annotations
relate to each other in the context of the <code>longest</code> function.</p>
<!-- Old headings. Do not remove or links may break. -->
<p><a id="lifetime-annotations-in-function-signatures"></a></p>
<h3 id="in-function-signatures"><a class="header" href="#in-function-signatures">In Function Signatures</a></h3>
<p>To use lifetime annotations in function signatures, we need to declare the
generic lifetime parameters inside angle brackets between the function name and
the parameter list, just as we did with generic type parameters.</p>
<p>We want the signature to express the following constraint: The returned
reference will be valid as long as both of the parameters are valid. This is
the relationship between lifetimes of the parameters and the return value.
We’ll name the lifetime <code>'a</code> and then add it to each reference, as shown in
Listing 10-21.</p>
<figure class="listing" id="listing-10-21">
<span class="file-name">Filename: src/main.rs</span>
<pre class="playground"><code class="language-rust edition2024"><span class="boring">fn main() {
</span><span class="boring"> let string1 = String::from("abcd");
</span><span class="boring"> let string2 = "xyz";
</span><span class="boring">
</span><span class="boring"> let result = longest(string1.as_str(), string2);
</span><span class="boring"> println!("The longest string is {result}");
</span><span class="boring">}
</span><span class="boring">
</span>fn longest&lt;'a&gt;(x: &amp;'a str, y: &amp;'a str) -&gt; &amp;'a str {
if x.len() &gt; y.len() { x } else { y }
}</code></pre>
<figcaption><a href="#listing-10-21">Listing 10-21</a>: The <code>longest</code> function definition specifying that all the references in the signature must have the same lifetime <code>'a</code></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This code should compile and produce the result we want when we use it with the
<code>main</code> function in Listing 10-19.</p>
<p>The function signature now tells Rust that for some lifetime <code>'a</code>, the function
takes two parameters, both of which are string slices that live at least as
long as lifetime <code>'a</code>. The function signature also tells Rust that the string
slice returned from the function will live at least as long as lifetime <code>'a</code>.
In practice, it means that the lifetime of the reference returned by the
<code>longest</code> function is the same as the smaller of the lifetimes of the values
referred to by the function arguments. These relationships are what we want
Rust to use when analyzing this code.</p>
<p>Remember, when we specify the lifetime parameters in this function signature,
we’re not changing the lifetimes of any values passed in or returned. Rather,
we’re specifying that the borrow checker should reject any values that don’t
adhere to these constraints. Note that the <code>longest</code> function doesn’t need to
know exactly how long <code>x</code> and <code>y</code> will live, only that some scope can be
substituted for <code>'a</code> that will satisfy this signature.</p>
<p>When annotating lifetimes in functions, the annotations go in the function
signature, not in the function body. The lifetime annotations become part of
the contract of the function, much like the types in the signature. Having
function signatures contain the lifetime contract means the analysis the Rust
compiler does can be simpler. If there’s a problem with the way a function is
annotated or the way it is called, the compiler errors can point to the part of
our code and the constraints more precisely. If, instead, the Rust compiler
made more inferences about what we intended the relationships of the lifetimes
to be, the compiler might only be able to point to a use of our code many steps
away from the cause of the problem.</p>
<p>When we pass concrete references to <code>longest</code>, the concrete lifetime that is
substituted for <code>'a</code> is the part of the scope of <code>x</code> that overlaps with the
scope of <code>y</code>. In other words, the generic lifetime <code>'a</code> will get the concrete
lifetime that is equal to the smaller of the lifetimes of <code>x</code> and <code>y</code>. Because
we’ve annotated the returned reference with the same lifetime parameter <code>'a</code>,
the returned reference will also be valid for the length of the smaller of the
lifetimes of <code>x</code> and <code>y</code>.</p>
<p>Let’s look at how the lifetime annotations restrict the <code>longest</code> function by
passing in references that have different concrete lifetimes. Listing 10-22 is
a straightforward example.</p>
<figure class="listing" id="listing-10-22">
<span class="file-name">Filename: src/main.rs</span>
<pre class="playground"><code class="language-rust edition2024">fn main() {
let string1 = String::from("long string is long");
{
let string2 = String::from("xyz");
let result = longest(string1.as_str(), string2.as_str());
println!("The longest string is {result}");
}
}
<span class="boring">
</span><span class="boring">fn longest&lt;'a&gt;(x: &amp;'a str, y: &amp;'a str) -&gt; &amp;'a str {
</span><span class="boring"> if x.len() &gt; y.len() { x } else { y }
</span><span class="boring">}</span></code></pre>
<figcaption><a href="#listing-10-22">Listing 10-22</a>: Using the <code>longest</code> function with references to <code>String</code> values that have different concrete lifetimes</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In this example, <code>string1</code> is valid until the end of the outer scope, <code>string2</code>
is valid until the end of the inner scope, and <code>result</code> references something
that is valid until the end of the inner scope. Run this code and you’ll see
that the borrow checker approves; it will compile and print <code>The longest string is long string is long</code>.</p>
<p>Next, let’s try an example that shows that the lifetime of the reference in
<code>result</code> must be the smaller lifetime of the two arguments. We’ll move the
declaration of the <code>result</code> variable outside the inner scope but leave the
assignment of the value to the <code>result</code> variable inside the scope with
<code>string2</code>. Then, we’ll move the <code>println!</code> that uses <code>result</code> to outside the
inner scope, after the inner scope has ended. The code in Listing 10-23 will
not compile.</p>
<figure class="listing" id="listing-10-23">
<span class="file-name">Filename: src/main.rs</span>
<pre><code class="language-rust ignore does_not_compile">fn main() {
let string1 = String::from("long string is long");
let result;
{
let string2 = String::from("xyz");
result = longest(string1.as_str(), string2.as_str());
}
println!("The longest string is {result}");
}
<span class="boring">
</span><span class="boring">fn longest&lt;'a&gt;(x: &amp;'a str, y: &amp;'a str) -&gt; &amp;'a str {
</span><span class="boring"> if x.len() &gt; y.len() { x } else { y }
</span><span class="boring">}</span></code></pre>
<figcaption><a href="#listing-10-23">Listing 10-23</a>: Attempting to use <code>result</code> after <code>string2</code> has gone out of scope</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>When we try to compile this code, we get this error:</p>
<pre><code class="language-console">$ cargo run
Compiling chapter10 v0.1.0 (file:///projects/chapter10)
error[E0597]: `string2` does not live long enough
--&gt; src/main.rs:6:44
|
5 | let string2 = String::from("xyz");
| ------- binding `string2` declared here
6 | result = longest(string1.as_str(), string2.as_str());
| ^^^^^^^ borrowed value does not live long enough
7 | }
| - `string2` dropped here while still borrowed
8 | println!("The longest string is {result}");
| ------ borrow later used here
For more information about this error, try `rustc --explain E0597`.
error: could not compile `chapter10` (bin "chapter10") due to 1 previous error
</code></pre>
<p>The error shows that for <code>result</code> to be valid for the <code>println!</code> statement,
<code>string2</code> would need to be valid until the end of the outer scope. Rust knows
this because we annotated the lifetimes of the function parameters and return
values using the same lifetime parameter <code>'a</code>.</p>
<p>As humans, we can look at this code and see that <code>string1</code> is longer than
<code>string2</code>, and therefore, <code>result</code> will contain a reference to <code>string1</code>.
Because <code>string1</code> has not gone out of scope yet, a reference to <code>string1</code> will
still be valid for the <code>println!</code> statement. However, the compiler can’t see
that the reference is valid in this case. We’ve told Rust that the lifetime of
the reference returned by the <code>longest</code> function is the same as the smaller of
the lifetimes of the references passed in. Therefore, the borrow checker
disallows the code in Listing 10-23 as possibly having an invalid reference.</p>
<p>Try designing more experiments that vary the values and lifetimes of the
references passed in to the <code>longest</code> function and how the returned reference
is used. Make hypotheses about whether or not your experiments will pass the
borrow checker before you compile; then, check to see if you’re right!</p>
<!-- Old headings. Do not remove or links may break. -->
<p><a id="thinking-in-terms-of-lifetimes"></a></p>
<h3 id="relationships"><a class="header" href="#relationships">Relationships</a></h3>
<p>The way in which you need to specify lifetime parameters depends on what your
function is doing. For example, if we changed the implementation of the
<code>longest</code> function to always return the first parameter rather than the longest
string slice, we wouldn’t need to specify a lifetime on the <code>y</code> parameter. The
following code will compile:</p>
<figure class="listing">
<span class="file-name">Filename: src/main.rs</span>
<pre class="playground"><code class="language-rust edition2024"><span class="boring">fn main() {
</span><span class="boring"> let string1 = String::from("abcd");
</span><span class="boring"> let string2 = "efghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz";
</span><span class="boring">
</span><span class="boring"> let result = longest(string1.as_str(), string2);
</span><span class="boring"> println!("The longest string is {result}");
</span><span class="boring">}
</span><span class="boring">
</span>fn longest&lt;'a&gt;(x: &amp;'a str, y: &amp;str) -&gt; &amp;'a str {
x
}</code></pre>
</figure>
<p>We’ve specified a lifetime parameter <code>'a</code> for the parameter <code>x</code> and the return
type, but not for the parameter <code>y</code>, because the lifetime of <code>y</code> does not have
any relationship with the lifetime of <code>x</code> or the return value.</p>
<p>When returning a reference from a function, the lifetime parameter for the
return type needs to match the lifetime parameter for one of the parameters. If
the reference returned does <em>not</em> refer to one of the parameters, it must refer
to a value created within this function. However, this would be a dangling
reference because the value will go out of scope at the end of the function.
Consider this attempted implementation of the <code>longest</code> function that won’t
compile:</p>
<figure class="listing">
<span class="file-name">Filename: src/main.rs</span>
<pre><code class="language-rust ignore does_not_compile"><span class="boring">fn main() {
</span><span class="boring"> let string1 = String::from("abcd");
</span><span class="boring"> let string2 = "xyz";
</span><span class="boring">
</span><span class="boring"> let result = longest(string1.as_str(), string2);
</span><span class="boring"> println!("The longest string is {result}");
</span><span class="boring">}
</span><span class="boring">
</span>fn longest&lt;'a&gt;(x: &amp;str, y: &amp;str) -&gt; &amp;'a str {
let result = String::from("really long string");
result.as_str()
}</code></pre>
</figure>
<p>Here, even though we’ve specified a lifetime parameter <code>'a</code> for the return
type, this implementation will fail to compile because the return value
lifetime is not related to the lifetime of the parameters at all. Here is the
error message we get:</p>
<pre><code class="language-console">$ cargo run
Compiling chapter10 v0.1.0 (file:///projects/chapter10)
error[E0515]: cannot return value referencing local variable `result`
--&gt; src/main.rs:11:5
|
11 | result.as_str()
| ------^^^^^^^^^
| |
| returns a value referencing data owned by the current function
| `result` is borrowed here
For more information about this error, try `rustc --explain E0515`.
error: could not compile `chapter10` (bin "chapter10") due to 1 previous error
</code></pre>
<p>The problem is that <code>result</code> goes out of scope and gets cleaned up at the end
of the <code>longest</code> function. We’re also trying to return a reference to <code>result</code>
from the function. There is no way we can specify lifetime parameters that
would change the dangling reference, and Rust won’t let us create a dangling
reference. In this case, the best fix would be to return an owned data type
rather than a reference so that the calling function is then responsible for
cleaning up the value.</p>
<p>Ultimately, lifetime syntax is about connecting the lifetimes of various
parameters and return values of functions. Once they’re connected, Rust has
enough information to allow memory-safe operations and disallow operations that
would create dangling pointers or otherwise violate memory safety.</p>
<!-- Old headings. Do not remove or links may break. -->
<p><a id="lifetime-annotations-in-struct-definitions"></a></p>
<h3 id="in-struct-definitions"><a class="header" href="#in-struct-definitions">In Struct Definitions</a></h3>
<p>So far, the structs we’ve defined all hold owned types. We can define structs
to hold references, but in that case, we would need to add a lifetime
annotation on every reference in the struct’s definition. Listing 10-24 has a
struct named <code>ImportantExcerpt</code> that holds a string slice.</p>
<figure class="listing" id="listing-10-24">
<span class="file-name">Filename: src/main.rs</span>
<pre class="playground"><code class="language-rust edition2024">struct ImportantExcerpt&lt;'a&gt; {
part: &amp;'a str,
}
fn main() {
let novel = String::from("Call me Ishmael. Some years ago...");
let first_sentence = novel.split('.').next().unwrap();
let i = ImportantExcerpt {
part: first_sentence,
};
}</code></pre>
<figcaption><a href="#listing-10-24">Listing 10-24</a>: A struct that holds a reference, requiring a lifetime annotation</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This struct has the single field <code>part</code> that holds a string slice, which is a
reference. As with generic data types, we declare the name of the generic
lifetime parameter inside angle brackets after the name of the struct so that
we can use the lifetime parameter in the body of the struct definition. This
annotation means an instance of <code>ImportantExcerpt</code> can’t outlive the reference
it holds in its <code>part</code> field.</p>
<p>The <code>main</code> function here creates an instance of the <code>ImportantExcerpt</code> struct
that holds a reference to the first sentence of the <code>String</code> owned by the
variable <code>novel</code>. The data in <code>novel</code> exists before the <code>ImportantExcerpt</code>
instance is created. In addition, <code>novel</code> doesn’t go out of scope until after
the <code>ImportantExcerpt</code> goes out of scope, so the reference in the
<code>ImportantExcerpt</code> instance is valid.</p>
<h3 id="lifetime-elision"><a class="header" href="#lifetime-elision">Lifetime Elision</a></h3>
<p>You’ve learned that every reference has a lifetime and that you need to specify
lifetime parameters for functions or structs that use references. However, we
had a function in Listing 4-9, shown again in Listing 10-25, that compiled
without lifetime annotations.</p>
<figure class="listing" id="listing-10-25">
<span class="file-name">Filename: src/lib.rs</span>
<pre class="playground"><code class="language-rust edition2024">fn first_word(s: &amp;str) -&gt; &amp;str {
let bytes = s.as_bytes();
for (i, &amp;item) in bytes.iter().enumerate() {
if item == b' ' {
return &amp;s[0..i];
}
}
&amp;s[..]
}
<span class="boring">
</span><span class="boring">fn main() {
</span><span class="boring"> let my_string = String::from("hello world");
</span><span class="boring">
</span><span class="boring"> // first_word works on slices of `String`s
</span><span class="boring"> let word = first_word(&amp;my_string[..]);
</span><span class="boring">
</span><span class="boring"> let my_string_literal = "hello world";
</span><span class="boring">
</span><span class="boring"> // first_word works on slices of string literals
</span><span class="boring"> let word = first_word(&amp;my_string_literal[..]);
</span><span class="boring">
</span><span class="boring"> // Because string literals *are* string slices already,
</span><span class="boring"> // this works too, without the slice syntax!
</span><span class="boring"> let word = first_word(my_string_literal);
</span><span class="boring">}</span></code></pre>
<figcaption><a href="#listing-10-25">Listing 10-25</a>: A function we defined in Listing 4-9 that compiled without lifetime annotations, even though the parameter and return type are references</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The reason this function compiles without lifetime annotations is historical:
In early versions (pre-1.0) of Rust, this code wouldn’t have compiled, because
every reference needed an explicit lifetime. At that time, the function
signature would have been written like this:</p>
<pre><code class="language-rust ignore">fn first_word&lt;'a&gt;(s: &amp;'a str) -&gt; &amp;'a str {</code></pre>
<p>After writing a lot of Rust code, the Rust team found that Rust programmers
were entering the same lifetime annotations over and over in particular
situations. These situations were predictable and followed a few deterministic
patterns. The developers programmed these patterns into the compiler’s code so
that the borrow checker could infer the lifetimes in these situations and
wouldn’t need explicit annotations.</p>
<p>This piece of Rust history is relevant because it’s possible that more
deterministic patterns will emerge and be added to the compiler. In the future,
even fewer lifetime annotations might be required.</p>
<p>The patterns programmed into Rust’s analysis of references are called the
<em>lifetime elision rules</em>. These aren’t rules for programmers to follow; they’re
a set of particular cases that the compiler will consider, and if your code
fits these cases, you don’t need to write the lifetimes explicitly.</p>
<p>The elision rules don’t provide full inference. If there is still ambiguity
about what lifetimes the references have after Rust applies the rules, the
compiler won’t guess what the lifetime of the remaining references should be.
Instead of guessing, the compiler will give you an error that you can resolve
by adding the lifetime annotations.</p>
<p>Lifetimes on function or method parameters are called <em>input lifetimes</em>, and
lifetimes on return values are called <em>output lifetimes</em>.</p>
<p>The compiler uses three rules to figure out the lifetimes of the references
when there aren’t explicit annotations. The first rule applies to input
lifetimes, and the second and third rules apply to output lifetimes. If the
compiler gets to the end of the three rules and there are still references for
which it can’t figure out lifetimes, the compiler will stop with an error.
These rules apply to <code>fn</code> definitions as well as <code>impl</code> blocks.</p>
<p>The first rule is that the compiler assigns a lifetime parameter to each
parameter that’s a reference. In other words, a function with one parameter
gets one lifetime parameter: <code>fn foo&lt;'a&gt;(x: &amp;'a i32)</code>; a function with two
parameters gets two separate lifetime parameters: <code>fn foo&lt;'a, 'b&gt;(x: &amp;'a i32, y: &amp;'b i32)</code>; and so on.</p>
<p>The second rule is that, if there is exactly one input lifetime parameter, that
lifetime is assigned to all output lifetime parameters: <code>fn foo&lt;'a&gt;(x: &amp;'a i32) -&gt; &amp;'a i32</code>.</p>
<p>The third rule is that, if there are multiple input lifetime parameters, but
one of them is <code>&amp;self</code> or <code>&amp;mut self</code> because this is a method, the lifetime of
<code>self</code> is assigned to all output lifetime parameters. This third rule makes
methods much nicer to read and write because fewer symbols are necessary.</p>
<p>Let’s pretend we’re the compiler. We’ll apply these rules to figure out the
lifetimes of the references in the signature of the <code>first_word</code> function in
Listing 10-25. The signature starts without any lifetimes associated with the
references:</p>
<pre><code class="language-rust ignore">fn first_word(s: &amp;str) -&gt; &amp;str {</code></pre>
<p>Then, the compiler applies the first rule, which specifies that each parameter
gets its own lifetime. We’ll call it <code>'a</code> as usual, so now the signature is
this:</p>
<pre><code class="language-rust ignore">fn first_word&lt;'a&gt;(s: &amp;'a str) -&gt; &amp;str {</code></pre>
<p>The second rule applies because there is exactly one input lifetime. The second
rule specifies that the lifetime of the one input parameter gets assigned to
the output lifetime, so the signature is now this:</p>
<pre><code class="language-rust ignore">fn first_word&lt;'a&gt;(s: &amp;'a str) -&gt; &amp;'a str {</code></pre>
<p>Now all the references in this function signature have lifetimes, and the
compiler can continue its analysis without needing the programmer to annotate
the lifetimes in this function signature.</p>
<p>Let’s look at another example, this time using the <code>longest</code> function that had
no lifetime parameters when we started working with it in Listing 10-20:</p>
<pre><code class="language-rust ignore">fn longest(x: &amp;str, y: &amp;str) -&gt; &amp;str {</code></pre>
<p>Let’s apply the first rule: Each parameter gets its own lifetime. This time we
have two parameters instead of one, so we have two lifetimes:</p>
<pre><code class="language-rust ignore">fn longest&lt;'a, 'b&gt;(x: &amp;'a str, y: &amp;'b str) -&gt; &amp;str {</code></pre>
<p>You can see that the second rule doesn’t apply, because there is more than one
input lifetime. The third rule doesn’t apply either, because <code>longest</code> is a
function rather than a method, so none of the parameters are <code>self</code>. After
working through all three rules, we still haven’t figured out what the return
type’s lifetime is. This is why we got an error trying to compile the code in
Listing 10-20: The compiler worked through the lifetime elision rules but still
couldn’t figure out all the lifetimes of the references in the signature.</p>
<p>Because the third rule really only applies in method signatures, we’ll look at
lifetimes in that context next to see why the third rule means we don’t have to
annotate lifetimes in method signatures very often.</p>
<!-- Old headings. Do not remove or links may break. -->
<p><a id="lifetime-annotations-in-method-definitions"></a></p>
<h3 id="in-method-definitions"><a class="header" href="#in-method-definitions">In Method Definitions</a></h3>
<p>When we implement methods on a struct with lifetimes, we use the same syntax as
that of generic type parameters, as shown in Listing 10-11. Where we declare
and use the lifetime parameters depends on whether they’re related to the
struct fields or the method parameters and return values.</p>
<p>Lifetime names for struct fields always need to be declared after the <code>impl</code>
keyword and then used after the struct’s name because those lifetimes are part
of the struct’s type.</p>
<p>In method signatures inside the <code>impl</code> block, references might be tied to the
lifetime of references in the struct’s fields, or they might be independent. In
addition, the lifetime elision rules often make it so that lifetime annotations
aren’t necessary in method signatures. Let’s look at some examples using the
struct named <code>ImportantExcerpt</code> that we defined in Listing 10-24.</p>
<p>First, we’ll use a method named <code>level</code> whose only parameter is a reference to
<code>self</code> and whose return value is an <code>i32</code>, which is not a reference to anything:</p>
<pre class="playground"><code class="language-rust edition2024"><span class="boring">struct ImportantExcerpt&lt;'a&gt; {
</span><span class="boring"> part: &amp;'a str,
</span><span class="boring">}
</span><span class="boring">
</span>impl&lt;'a&gt; ImportantExcerpt&lt;'a&gt; {
fn level(&amp;self) -&gt; i32 {
3
}
}
<span class="boring">
</span><span class="boring">impl&lt;'a&gt; ImportantExcerpt&lt;'a&gt; {
</span><span class="boring"> fn announce_and_return_part(&amp;self, announcement: &amp;str) -&gt; &amp;str {
</span><span class="boring"> println!("Attention please: {announcement}");
</span><span class="boring"> self.part
</span><span class="boring"> }
</span><span class="boring">}
</span><span class="boring">
</span><span class="boring">fn main() {
</span><span class="boring"> let novel = String::from("Call me Ishmael. Some years ago...");
</span><span class="boring"> let first_sentence = novel.split('.').next().unwrap();
</span><span class="boring"> let i = ImportantExcerpt {
</span><span class="boring"> part: first_sentence,
</span><span class="boring"> };
</span><span class="boring">}</span></code></pre>
<p>The lifetime parameter declaration after <code>impl</code> and its use after the type name
are required, but because of the first elision rule, we’re not required to
annotate the lifetime of the reference to <code>self</code>.</p>
<p>Here is an example where the third lifetime elision rule applies:</p>
<pre class="playground"><code class="language-rust edition2024"><span class="boring">struct ImportantExcerpt&lt;'a&gt; {
</span><span class="boring"> part: &amp;'a str,
</span><span class="boring">}
</span><span class="boring">
</span><span class="boring">impl&lt;'a&gt; ImportantExcerpt&lt;'a&gt; {
</span><span class="boring"> fn level(&amp;self) -&gt; i32 {
</span><span class="boring"> 3
</span><span class="boring"> }
</span><span class="boring">}
</span><span class="boring">
</span>impl&lt;'a&gt; ImportantExcerpt&lt;'a&gt; {
fn announce_and_return_part(&amp;self, announcement: &amp;str) -&gt; &amp;str {
println!("Attention please: {announcement}");
self.part
}
}
<span class="boring">
</span><span class="boring">fn main() {
</span><span class="boring"> let novel = String::from("Call me Ishmael. Some years ago...");
</span><span class="boring"> let first_sentence = novel.split('.').next().unwrap();
</span><span class="boring"> let i = ImportantExcerpt {
</span><span class="boring"> part: first_sentence,
</span><span class="boring"> };
</span><span class="boring">}</span></code></pre>
<p>There are two input lifetimes, so Rust applies the first lifetime elision rule
and gives both <code>&amp;self</code> and <code>announcement</code> their own lifetimes. Then, because
one of the parameters is <code>&amp;self</code>, the return type gets the lifetime of <code>&amp;self</code>,
and all lifetimes have been accounted for.</p>
<h3 id="the-static-lifetime"><a class="header" href="#the-static-lifetime">The Static Lifetime</a></h3>
<p>One special lifetime we need to discuss is <code>'static</code>, which denotes that the
affected reference <em>can</em> live for the entire duration of the program. All
string literals have the <code>'static</code> lifetime, which we can annotate as follows:</p>
<pre class="playground"><code class="language-rust edition2024"><span class="boring">#![allow(unused)]
</span><span class="boring">fn main() {
</span>let s: &amp;'static str = "I have a static lifetime.";
<span class="boring">}</span></code></pre>
<p>The text of this string is stored directly in the program’s binary, which is
always available. Therefore, the lifetime of all string literals is <code>'static</code>.</p>
<p>You might see suggestions in error messages to use the <code>'static</code> lifetime. But
before specifying <code>'static</code> as the lifetime for a reference, think about
whether or not the reference you have actually lives the entire lifetime of
your program, and whether you want it to. Most of the time, an error message
suggesting the <code>'static</code> lifetime results from attempting to create a dangling
reference or a mismatch of the available lifetimes. In such cases, the solution
is to fix those problems, not to specify the <code>'static</code> lifetime.</p>
<!-- Old headings. Do not remove or links may break. -->
<p><a id="generic-type-parameters-trait-bounds-and-lifetimes-together"></a></p>
<h2 id="generic-type-parameters-trait-bounds-and-lifetimes"><a class="header" href="#generic-type-parameters-trait-bounds-and-lifetimes">Generic Type Parameters, Trait Bounds, and Lifetimes</a></h2>
<p>Let’s briefly look at the syntax of specifying generic type parameters, trait
bounds, and lifetimes all in one function!</p>
<pre class="playground"><code class="language-rust edition2024"><span class="boring">fn main() {
</span><span class="boring"> let string1 = String::from("abcd");
</span><span class="boring"> let string2 = "xyz";
</span><span class="boring">
</span><span class="boring"> let result = longest_with_an_announcement(
</span><span class="boring"> string1.as_str(),
</span><span class="boring"> string2,
</span><span class="boring"> "Today is someone's birthday!",
</span><span class="boring"> );
</span><span class="boring"> println!("The longest string is {result}");
</span><span class="boring">}
</span><span class="boring">
</span>use std::fmt::Display;
fn longest_with_an_announcement&lt;'a, T&gt;(
x: &amp;'a str,
y: &amp;'a str,
ann: T,
) -&gt; &amp;'a str
where
T: Display,
{
println!("Announcement! {ann}");
if x.len() &gt; y.len() { x } else { y }
}</code></pre>
<p>This is the <code>longest</code> function from Listing 10-21 that returns the longer of
two string slices. But now it has an extra parameter named <code>ann</code> of the generic
type <code>T</code>, which can be filled in by any type that implements the <code>Display</code>
trait as specified by the <code>where</code> clause. This extra parameter will be printed
using <code>{}</code>, which is why the <code>Display</code> trait bound is necessary. Because
lifetimes are a type of generic, the declarations of the lifetime parameter
<code>'a</code> and the generic type parameter <code>T</code> go in the same list inside the angle
brackets after the function name.</p>
<h2 id="summary"><a class="header" href="#summary">Summary</a></h2>
<p>We covered a lot in this chapter! Now that you know about generic type
parameters, traits and trait bounds, and generic lifetime parameters, you’re
ready to write code without repetition that works in many different situations.
Generic type parameters let you apply the code to different types. Traits and
trait bounds ensure that even though the types are generic, they’ll have the
behavior the code needs. You learned how to use lifetime annotations to ensure
that this flexible code won’t have any dangling references. And all of this
analysis happens at compile time, which doesn’t affect runtime performance!</p>
<p>Believe it or not, there is much more to learn on the topics we discussed in
this chapter: Chapter 18 discusses trait objects, which are another way to use
traits. There are also more complex scenarios involving lifetime annotations
that you will only need in very advanced scenarios; for those, you should read
the <a href="../reference/trait-bounds.html">Rust Reference</a>. But next, you’ll learn how to write tests in
Rust so that you can make sure your code is working the way it should.</p>
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