Chapter 9: Structs in Rust

Structs are a fundamental component of Rust’s type system, providing a clear and expressive way to group related data into a single logical entity. Rust’s structs share similarities with C’s struct, offering a mechanism to bundle multiple fields under one named type. Each field can be of a different type, enabling the representation of complex data. Rust structs also have a fixed size known at compile time, meaning the type and number of fields cannot change at runtime.

However, Rust’s structs offer additional capabilities, such as enforced memory safety through ownership rules and separate method definitions, providing functionality akin to classes in object-oriented programming (OOP) languages like C++ or Java.

In this chapter, we’ll explore:

• Defining and using structs
• Field initialization and mutability
• Struct update syntax
• Default values and the Default trait
• Tuple structs and unit-like structs
• Methods, associated functions, and impl blocks
• The self parameter
• Getters and setters
• Ownership considerations
• References and lifetimes in structs
• Generic structs
• Comparing Rust structs with OOP concepts
• Derived traits
• Visibility and modules overview
• Exercises to practice struct usage