Rust Object Destructuring

Rust allows to easily decompose complex objects into simple.

Structs

For example, destructuring struct:

struct Point {
    x: i32,
    y: i32,
}

fn main() {
    let p = Point { x: 0, y: 7 };

    let Point { x: a, y: b } = p;
    assert_eq!(0, a);
    assert_eq!(7, b);
}

and even more simple case:

struct Point {
    x: i32,
    y: i32,
}

fn main() {
    let p = Point { x: 0, y: 7 };

    let Point { x, y } = p;
    assert_eq!(0, x);
    assert_eq!(7, y);
}

Destructuring is effectively a pattern, so it may be used in pattern matching scenarios:

fn main() {
    let p = Point { x: 0, y: 7 };

    match p {
        Point { x, y: 0 } => println!("On the x axis at {}", x),
        Point { x: 0, y } => println!("On the y axis at {}", y),
        Point { x, y } => println!("On neither axis: ({}, {})", x, y),
    }
}

Enums

enum Message {
    Quit,
    Move { x: i32, y: i32 },
    Write(String),
    ChangeColor(i32, i32, i32),
}

fn main() {
    let msg = Message::ChangeColor(0, 160, 255);

    match msg {
        Message::Quit => {
            println!("The Quit variant has no data to destructure.")
        }
        Message::Move { x, y } => {
            println!(
                "Move in the x direction {} and in the y direction {}",
                x, y
            );
        }
        Message::Write(text) => println!("Text message: {}", text),
        Message::ChangeColor(r, g, b) => println!(
            "Change the color to red {}, green {}, and blue {}",
            r, g, b
        ),
    }
}

Destructuring Of Nested Objects

enum Color {
    Rgb(i32, i32, i32),
    Hsv(i32, i32, i32),
}

enum Message {
    Quit,
    Move { x: i32, y: i32 },
    Write(String),
    ChangeColor(Color),
}

fn main() {
    let msg = Message::ChangeColor(Color::Hsv(0, 160, 255));

    match msg {
        Message::ChangeColor(Color::Rgb(r, g, b)) => println!(
            "Change the color to red {}, green {}, and blue {}",
            r, g, b
        ),
        Message::ChangeColor(Color::Hsv(h, s, v)) => println!(
            "Change the color to hue {}, saturation {}, and value {}",
            h, s, v
        ),
        _ => (),
    }
}

fn main() {
    struct Point {
        x: i32,
        y: i32,
    }

    let ((feet, inches), Point { x, y }) = ((3, 10), Point { x: 3, y: -10 });
}

Ignore Some Destructured Values

In function signature:

fn foo(_: i32, y: i32) {
    println!("This code only uses the y parameter: {}", y);
}

fn main() {
    foo(3, 4);
}

In pattern matching:

let numbers = (2, 4, 8, 16, 32);

match numbers {
    (first, _, third, _, fifth) => {
        println!("Some numbers: {}, {}, {}", first, third, fifth)
    }
}

Ignore unused variable:

fn main() {
    let _x = 5;
    let y = 10;
}

The syntax _x still binds the value to the variable, but disables the warning about unused variable, whereas _ doesn’t bind at all.

It is possible to ignore all remaining parts of structure, which are not explicitly specified to destructure with .. operator:

struct Point {
    x: i32,
    y: i32,
    z: i32,
}

let origin = Point { x: 0, y: 0, z: 0 };

match origin {
    Point { x, .. } => println!("x is {}", x),
}

Specificially with tuples, we can ignore positionally:

fn main() {
    let numbers = (2, 4, 8, 16, 32);

    match numbers {
        (first, .., last) => {
            println!("Some numbers: {}, {}", first, last);
        }
    }
}