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Rust Quick Start Guide
Rust Quick Start Guide

Rust Quick Start Guide: The easiest way to learn Rust programming

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Profile Icon Daniel Arbuckle Profile Icon Daniel Arbuckle
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Arrow left icon
Profile Icon Daniel Arbuckle Profile Icon Daniel Arbuckle
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Paperback Oct 2018 180 pages 1st Edition
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Rust Quick Start Guide

Basics of the Rust Language

Okay, we're ready to actually begin writing some Rust code. In this chapter, we're going to look at how Rust programs are structured, and how an assortment of common programming elements are expressed in the language. We'll start with functions and modules, then move on to fundamental language features, such as branching, looping, and data structures. Almost everything we're covering in this chapter has an equivalent in most other programming languages; these are the fundamentals of programming.

Specifically, this chapter describes the following:

  • Functions, which are somewhat like miniature programs that are part of the larger program
  • Modules, which are used to organize the program
  • Expressions, which are how we tell the program to actually do specific things
  • Branching, which is how we tell the program to make a decision
  • Looping...

Functions

We saw a couple of functions, in passing, in the last chapter when we looked at the automatically generated boilerplate code created by cargo new. What were we actually seeing, though?

A function is a sequence of instructions for the computer to follow. It's sort of like a recipe. We don't have to tell a person how much flour, sugar, and milk to use to bake cookies, if we know that they already have a cookie recipe. We can just say: Bake some cookies, please. It's similar with a function. We don't have to tell the computer exactly how to save some information to a database; if there's a save_to_database function, we can use it to do the job.

In Rust, instructions that can tell the computer to take action can only be written inside of functions. It all starts with a function called main, which can cause other functions to run, which can in turn...

Modules

Modules give us a way to organize our functions (and other items that have names, such as data structures) into categories. This helps us keep things organized, and allows us to use the same name more than once, as long as we only use it once per module. It also lets us use shorter versions of a thing's name most of the time, but gives us a longer version we can use when those short names might be confusing or ambiguous.

Defining a module

Defining a module is easy. In any .rs file which the compiler is going to be looking at, we can use the mod keyword to start a new module. There are two different ways to use that keyword, though, depending on whether we want to define the module as a section of the current file...

Expressions

The instructions that tell the computer to do something in a Rust program are almost all expressions. An expression tells the computer how to compute a particular value, and produces that value as its result. In math, 2 + 2 is an expression with a resulting value of 4. Similarly, (2 + 2) - 1 is an expression with a resulting value of 3, which is itself made up of an addition expression and a subtraction expression. In Rust, the same basic idea applies: expressions tell the computer how to find a value, and they can be combined together, because using an expression that produces a value has the same result as using that value directly, just as writing (2 + 2) - 1 has the same result as writing 4 - 1.

Not all expressions in Rust look like math, though. Rust is a programming language, not just a calculator. It's the idea of expressions, which combine values to produce...

Variables, types, and mutability

A variable is a named box in which a data value can be stored. The variable itself isn't the data value, just like a carton of milk is not the same thing as milk (it's waxed cardboard and such containing milk).

On the other hand, if somebody needs milk and you hand them a full milk carton, they're not going to complain, and the same goes for Rust. If a Rust expression needs an integer, and we provide a variable containing an integer, Rust will be perfectly happy with that.

Variables are most often created using the let keyword:

let x = 10;

This statement creates a variable called x containing the 10 value in it. Once that's done, we can refer to x as part of the expressions. For example, x + 5 is now a valid expression, with a resulting value of 15.

The names that for loops use are also variables, as are function parameters...

Data structures

Creating a data structure is one of the ways to add a new data type to Rust. A data structure is a group of variables that have been attached to each other, resulting in a single new data type that means all of these, together.

A new structure is defined using the struct keyword:

pub struct Constrained {
pub min: i32,
pub max: i32,
current: i32,
}
Notice the commas after each contained variable is defined. It can be tempting to use semicolons there, but that would cause a compiler error. The final comma is optional, but recommended, because it means that the lines can be rearranged without having to pay attention to where a comma might be missing, among other reasons.

Here, we've defined a structure called Constrained, which is made up of three different 32-bit unsigned integer variables. The structure itself is public, meaning that it can be used...

More about functions

Now, we're going to fill in the blanks left in the earlier discussion of functions by talking about parameters and return types.

Parameters

Parameters allow us to provide information to a function at the time when we ask it to run.

Asking a function to run is called calling it.

When we define a function, we can tell it the variable names and types we want it to use for receiving parameters, as in the following example:

pub fn set(&mut self, value: i32) {
self.current = value;
}

We'll talk about self in the Implementing behavior for types section of this chapter. For now, ignore it and take a look at value. Here, we've provided a name and data type, just as we would if we were using...

Implementing behavior for types

In previous examples, we've seen what appeared to be calls to functions that were contained within data values, such as "127.0.0.1:12345".parse() or ["Hello", "world", "of", "loops"].iter(). Those are functions that have been implemented on the type of those values. Implementing functions on a type looks like this:

impl Constrained {
pub fn set(&mut self, value: i32) {
self.current = value;
}

pub fn get(&self) -> i32 {
if self.current < self.min {
return self.min;
}
else if self.current > self.max {
return self.max;
}
else {
return self.current;
};
}
}

This is an implementation block (which is not a block expression) for a data type, in this case the Constrained type that we created...

Summary

As we put the things we've learned in this chapter into practice, our grasp on them will solidify. We've learned about the basic structure of Rust programs, as well as how to write functions, loops, and branches. In addition, we've learned about Rust's type system and how to attach behavior to a data type. These things give us a foundation to build on, while we learn about the things that make Rust truly different from other programming languages.

In the next chapter, we're going to look at how the fundamental Rust concepts of ownership and borrowing work.

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Key benefits

  • Learn the semantics of Rust, which can be significantly different from other programming languages
  • Understand clearly how to work with the Rust compiler which strictly enforces rules that may not be obvious
  • Examples and insights beyond the Rust documentation

Description

Rust is an emerging programming language applicable to areas such as embedded programming, network programming, system programming, and web development. This book will take you from the basics of Rust to a point where your code compiles and does what you intend it to do! This book starts with an introduction to Rust and how to get set for programming, including the rustup and cargo tools for managing a Rust installation and development work?ow. Then you'll learn about the fundamentals of structuring a Rust program, such as functions, mutability, data structures, implementing behavior for types, and many more. You will also learn about concepts that Rust handles differently from most other languages. After understanding the Basics of Rust programming, you will learn about the core ideas, such as variable ownership, scope, lifetime, and borrowing. After these key ideas, you will explore making decisions in Rust based on data types by learning about match and if let expressions. After that, you'll work with different data types in Rust, and learn about memory management and smart pointers.

Who is this book for?

This book is for people who are new to Rust, either as their first programming language or coming to it from somewhere else. Familiarity with computer programming in any other language will be helpful in getting the best out of this book.

What you will learn

  • Install Rust and write your first program with it
  • Understand ownership in Rust
  • Handle different data types
  • Make decisions by pattern matching
  • Use smart pointers
  • Use generic types and type specialization
  • Write code that works with many data types
  • Tap into the standard library
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Table of Contents

9 Chapters
Getting Ready Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Basics of the Rust Language Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
The Big Ideas – Ownership and Borrowing Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Making Decisions by Pattern Matching Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
One Data Type Representing Multiple Kinds of Data Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Heap Memory and Smart Pointers Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Generic Types Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Important Standard Traits Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Other Books You May Enjoy Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Customer reviews

Rating distribution
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Half star icon Empty star icon 3.7
(3 Ratings)
5 star 33.3%
4 star 33.3%
3 star 0%
2 star 33.3%
1 star 0%
M. Henri De Feraudy Apr 01, 2019
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
This is a lively introduction to Rust. The writing is friendly to beginners, or so it seems to me, because I am not a beginner, so I'm guessing a little. For a more experienced developer, it might be a little too watered down and informal, but I'm not complaining. You have the Rust website as an alternate source of information.You could come to this book after learning Python.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Amazon Customer Jun 04, 2022
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Empty star icon 4
Concepts are well explained...will recommend The book for those who already know c or cpp.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Avirup D. Jun 20, 2020
Full star icon Full star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon 2
Very Boring and difficult-to-book. Don't buy it if you are a newcomer in Rust.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
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