For now, this reference is a best-effort document. We strive for validity and completeness, but are not yet there. In the future, the docs and lang teams will work together to figure out how best to do this. Until then, this is a best-effort attempt. If you find something wrong or missing, file an issue or send in a pull request.

Types

Every variable, item, and value in a Rust program has a type. The type of a value defines the interpretation of the memory holding it and the operations that may be performed on the value.

Built-in types are tightly integrated into the language, in nontrivial ways that are not possible to emulate in user-defined types. User-defined types have limited capabilities.

The list of types is:

Type expressions

Syntax
Type :
      TypeNoBounds
   | ImplTraitType
   | TraitObjectType

TypeNoBounds :
      ParenthesizedType
   | ImplTraitTypeOneBound
   | TraitObjectTypeOneBound
   | TypePath
   | TupleType
   | NeverType
   | RawPointerType
   | ReferenceType
   | ArrayType
   | SliceType
   | InferredType
   | QualifiedPathInType
   | BareFunctionType
   | MacroInvocation

A type expression as defined in the Type grammar rule above is the syntax for referring to a type. It may refer to:

Parenthesized types

ParenthesizedType :
   ( Type )

In some situations the combination of types may be ambiguous. Use parentheses around a type to avoid ambiguity. For example, the + operator for type boundaries within a reference type is unclear where the boundary applies, so the use of parentheses is required. Grammar rules that require this disambiguation use the TypeNoBounds rule instead of Type.


# #![allow(unused_variables)]
#fn main() {
# use std::any::Any;
type T<'a> = &'a (dyn Any + Send);
#}

Recursive types

Nominal types — structs, enumerations, and unions — may be recursive. That is, each enum variant or struct or union field may refer, directly or indirectly, to the enclosing enum or struct type itself. Such recursion has restrictions:

  • Recursive types must include a nominal type in the recursion (not mere type aliases, or other structural types such as arrays or tuples). So type Rec = &'static [Rec] is not allowed.
  • The size of a recursive type must be finite; in other words the recursive fields of the type must be pointer types.
  • Recursive type definitions can cross module boundaries, but not module visibility boundaries, or crate boundaries (in order to simplify the module system and type checker).

An example of a recursive type and its use:


# #![allow(unused_variables)]
#fn main() {
enum List<T> {
    Nil,
    Cons(T, Box<List<T>>)
}

let a: List<i32> = List::Cons(7, Box::new(List::Cons(13, Box::new(List::Nil))));
#}