Arrays & Slices

Array

  • An array is a collection of objects of the same type T, stored in contiguous memory.

  • Arrays are created using brackets [], and their length, which is known at compile time, is part of their type signature [T; length].

  • Arrays are stack allocated.

  • Arrays own their data.

  • Arrays can be automatically borrowed as slices.

    let m = [1, 2, 3]; // Rust will infer the type and length
let n: [i32; 3] = [1, 2, 3];

Slice

  • Slices are similar to arrays, but their length is not known at compile time.

  • Slices are views into data; they do not own the data.

  • Slices are references and follow Rust's borrowing rules.

  • Slices are a fat pointer:

    • A reference to the start of the data.

    • The length of the slice.

    let x = [1, 2, 3];
let slice = &x[1..]; // A slice starting from index 1

Reference

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