r[coerce]

Type coercions

r[coerce.intro] Type coercions are implicit operations that change the type of a value. They happen automatically at specific locations and are highly restricted in what types actually coerce.

r[coerce.as] Any conversions allowed by coercion can also be explicitly performed by the type cast operator, as.

Coercions are originally defined in RFC 401 and expanded upon in RFC 1558.

r[coerce.site]

Coercion sites

r[coerce.site.intro] A coercion can only occur at certain coercion sites in a program; these are typically places where the desired type is explicit or can be derived by propagation from explicit types (without type inference). Possible coercion sites are:

r[coerce.site.let]

  • let statements where an explicit type is given.

    For example, &mut 42 is coerced to have type &i8 in the following:

    #![allow(unused)]
fn main() {
let _: &i8 = &mut 42;
}

r[coerce.site.value]

  • static and const item declarations (similar to let statements).

r[coerce.site.argument]

  • Arguments for function calls

    The value being coerced is the actual parameter, and it is coerced to the type of the formal parameter.

    For example, &mut 42 is coerced to have type &i8 in the following:

    fn bar(_: &i8) { }

fn main() {
    bar(&mut 42);
}

    For method calls, the receiver (self parameter) type is coerced differently, see the documentation on method-call expressions for details.

r[coerce.site.constructor]

  • Instantiations of struct, union, or enum variant fields

    For example, &mut 42 is coerced to have type &i8 in the following:

    struct Foo<'a> { x: &'a i8 }

fn main() {
    Foo { x: &mut 42 };
}

r[coerce.site.return]

  • Function results—either the final line of a block if it is not semicolon-terminated or any expression in a return statement

    For example, x is coerced to have type &dyn Display in the following:

    #![allow(unused)]
fn main() {
use std::fmt::Display;
fn foo(x: &u32) -> &dyn Display {
    x
}
}

r[coerce.site.subexpr] If the expression in one of these coercion sites is a coercion-propagating expression, then the relevant sub-expressions in that expression are also coercion sites. Propagation recurses from these new coercion sites. Propagating expressions and their relevant sub-expressions are:

r[coerce.site.array]

  • Array literals, where the array has type [U; n]. Each sub-expression in the array literal is a coercion site for coercion to type U.

r[coerce.site.repeat]

  • Array literals with repeating syntax, where the array has type [U; n]. The repeated sub-expression is a coercion site for coercion to type U.

r[coerce.site.tuple]

  • Tuples, where a tuple is a coercion site to type (U_0, U_1, ..., U_n). Each sub-expression is a coercion site to the respective type, e.g. the zeroth sub-expression is a coercion site to type U_0.

r[coerce.site.parenthesis]

  • Parenthesized sub-expressions ((e)): if the expression has type U, then the sub-expression is a coercion site to U.

r[coerce.site.block]

  • Blocks: if a block has type U, then the last expression in the block (if it is not semicolon-terminated) is a coercion site to U. This includes blocks which are part of control flow statements, such as if/else, if the block has a known type.

r[coerce.types]

Coercion types

r[coerce.types.intro] Coercion is allowed between the following types:

r[coerce.types.reflexive]

  • T to U if T is a subtype of U (reflexive case)

r[coerce.types.transitive]

  • T_1 to T_3 where T_1 coerces to T_2 and T_2 coerces to T_3 (transitive case)

    Note that this is not fully supported yet.

r[coerce.types.mut-reborrow]

  • &mut T to &T

r[coerce.types.mut-pointer]

  • *mut T to *const T

r[coerce.types.ref-to-pointer]

  • &T to *const T

r[coerce.types.mut-to-pointer]

  • &mut T to *mut T

r[coerce.types.deref]

  • &T or &mut T to &U if T implements Deref<Target = U>. For example:

    use std::ops::Deref;

struct CharContainer {
    value: char,
}

impl Deref for CharContainer {
    type Target = char;

    fn deref<'a>(&'a self) -> &'a char {
        &self.value
    }
}

fn foo(arg: &char) {}

fn main() {
    let x = &mut CharContainer { value: 'y' };
    foo(x); //&mut CharContainer is coerced to &char.
}

r[coerce.types.deref-mut]

  • &mut T to &mut U if T implements DerefMut<Target = U>.

r[coerce.types.unsize]

  • TyCtor(T) to TyCtor(U), where TyCtor(T) is one of

    • &T
    • &mut T
    • *const T
    • *mut T
    • Box<T>

    and where U can be obtained from T by unsized coercion.

r[coerce.types.fn]

  • Function item types to fn pointers

r[coerce.types.closure]

  • Non capturing closures to fn pointers

r[coerce.types.never]

  • ! to any T

r[coerce.unsize]

Unsized coercions

r[coerce.unsize.intro] The following coercions are called unsized coercions, since they relate to converting types to unsized types, and are permitted in a few cases where other coercions are not, as described above. They can still happen anywhere else a coercion can occur.

r[coerce.unsize.trait] Two traits, Unsize and CoerceUnsized, are used to assist in this process and expose it for library use. The following coercions are built-ins and, if T can be coerced to U with one of them, then an implementation of Unsize<U> for T will be provided:

r[coerce.unsize.slice]

  • [T; n] to [T].

r[coerce.unsize.trait-object]

r[coerce.unsize.trait-upcast]

  • dyn T to dyn U, when U is one of T’s supertraits.
    • This allows dropping auto traits, i.e. dyn T + Auto to dyn U is allowed.
    • This allows adding auto traits if the principal trait has the auto trait as a super trait, i.e. given trait T: U + Send {}, dyn T to dyn T + Send or to dyn U + Send coercions are allowed.

r[coerce.unsized.composite]

  • Foo<..., T, ...> to Foo<..., U, ...>, when:
    • Foo is a struct.
    • T implements Unsize<U>.
    • The last field of Foo has a type involving T.
    • If that field has type Bar<T>, then Bar<T> implements Unsize<Bar<U>>.
    • T is not part of the type of any other fields.

r[coerce.unsized.pointer] Additionally, a type Foo<T> can implement CoerceUnsized<Foo<U>> when T implements Unsize<U> or CoerceUnsized<Foo<U>>. This allows it to provide an unsized coercion to Foo<U>.

[!NOTE] While the definition of the unsized coercions and their implementation has been stabilized, the traits themselves are not yet stable and therefore can’t be used directly in stable Rust.

r[coerce.least-upper-bound]

Least upper bound coercions

r[coerce.least-upper-bound.intro] In some contexts, the compiler must coerce together multiple types to try and find the most general type. This is called a “Least Upper Bound” coercion. LUB coercion is used and only used in the following situations:

  • To find the common type for a series of if branches.
  • To find the common type for a series of match arms.
  • To find the common type for array elements.
  • To find the type for the return type of a closure with multiple return statements.
  • To check the type for the return type of a function with multiple return statements.

r[coerce.least-upper-bound.target] In each such case, there are a set of types T0..Tn to be mutually coerced to some target type T_t, which is unknown to start.

r[coerce.least-upper-bound.computation] Computing the LUB coercion is done iteratively. The target type T_t begins as the type T0. For each new type Ti, we consider whether

r[coerce.least-upper-bound.computation-identity]

  • If Ti can be coerced to the current target type T_t, then no change is made.

r[coerce.least-upper-bound.computation-replace]

  • Otherwise, check whether T_t can be coerced to Ti; if so, the T_t is changed to Ti. (This check is also conditioned on whether all of the source expressions considered thus far have implicit coercions.)

r[coerce.least-upper-bound.computation-unify]

  • If not, try to compute a mutual supertype of T_t and Ti, which will become the new target type.

Examples:

#![allow(unused)]
fn main() {
let (a, b, c) = (0, 1, 2);
// For if branches
let bar = if true {
    a
} else if false {
    b
} else {
    c
};

// For match arms
let baw = match 42 {
    0 => a,
    1 => b,
    _ => c,
};

// For array elements
let bax = [a, b, c];

// For closure with multiple return statements
let clo = || {
    if true {
        a
    } else if false {
        b
    } else {
        c
    }
};
let baz = clo();

// For type checking of function with multiple return statements
fn foo() -> i32 {
    let (a, b, c) = (0, 1, 2);
    match 42 {
        0 => a,
        1 => b,
        _ => c,
    }
}
}

In these examples, types of the ba* are found by LUB coercion. And the compiler checks whether LUB coercion result of a, b, c is i32 in the processing of the function foo.

Caveat

This description is obviously informal. Making it more precise is expected to proceed as part of a general effort to specify the Rust type checker more precisely.