Arrays & Slices
Array
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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.
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Arrays own their data.
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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
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Slices are similar to arrays, but their length is not known at compile time.
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Slices are views into data; they do not own the data.
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Slices are references and follow Rust's borrowing rules.
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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