B - Operators and Symbols - The Rust Programming Language

Appendix B: Operators and Symbols

This appendix contains a glossary of Rust’s syntax, including operators and other symbols that appear by themselves or in the context of paths, generics, trait bounds, macros, attributes, comments, tuples, and brackets.

Operators

Table B-1 contains the operators in Rust, an example of how the operator would appear in context, a short explanation, and whether that operator is overloadable. If an operator is overloadable, the relevant trait to use to overload that operator is listed.

Table B-1: Operators

Operator	Example	Explanation	Overloadable?
`!`	`ident!(...)`, `ident!{...}`, `ident![...]`	Macro expansion
`!`	`!expr`	Bitwise or logical complement	`Not`
`!=`	`var != expr`	Nonequality comparison	`PartialEq`
`%`	`expr % expr`	Arithmetic remainder	`Rem`
`%=`	`var %= expr`	Arithmetic remainder and assignment	`RemAssign`
`&`	`&expr`, `&mut expr`	Borrow
`&`	`&type`, `&mut type`, `&'a type`, `&'a mut type`	Borrowed pointer type
`&`	`expr & expr`	Bitwise AND	`BitAnd`
`&=`	`var &= expr`	Bitwise AND and assignment	`BitAndAssign`
`&&`	`expr && expr`	Short-circuiting logical AND
`*`	`expr * expr`	Arithmetic multiplication	`Mul`
`*=`	`var *= expr`	Arithmetic multiplication and assignment	`MulAssign`
`*`	`*expr`	Dereference	`Deref`
`*`	`const type`, `mut type`	Raw pointer
`+`	`trait + trait`, `'a + trait`	Compound type constraint
`+`	`expr + expr`	Arithmetic addition	`Add`
`+=`	`var += expr`	Arithmetic addition and assignment	`AddAssign`
`,`	`expr, expr`	Argument and element separator
`-`	`- expr`	Arithmetic negation	`Neg`
`-`	`expr - expr`	Arithmetic subtraction	`Sub`
`-=`	`var -= expr`	Arithmetic subtraction and assignment	`SubAssign`
`->`	`fn(...) -> type`, `\|...\| -> type`	Function and closure return type
`.`	`expr.ident`	Member access
`..`	`..`, `expr..`, `..expr`, `expr..expr`	Right-exclusive range literal	`PartialOrd`
`..=`	`..=expr`, `expr..=expr`	Right-inclusive range literal	`PartialOrd`
`..`	`..expr`	Struct literal update syntax
`..`	`variant(x, ..)`, `struct_type { x, .. }`	“And the rest” pattern binding
`...`	`expr...expr`	(Deprecated, use `..=` instead) In a pattern: inclusive range pattern
`/`	`expr / expr`	Arithmetic division	`Div`
`/=`	`var /= expr`	Arithmetic division and assignment	`DivAssign`
`:`	`pat: type`, `ident: type`	Constraints
`:`	`ident: expr`	Struct field initializer
`:`	`'a: loop {...}`	Loop label
`;`	`expr;`	Statement and item terminator
`;`	`[...; len]`	Part of fixed-size array syntax
`<<`	`expr << expr`	Left-shift	`Shl`
`<<=`	`var <<= expr`	Left-shift and assignment	`ShlAssign`
`<`	`expr < expr`	Less than comparison	`PartialOrd`
`<=`	`expr <= expr`	Less than or equal to comparison	`PartialOrd`
`=`	`var = expr`, `ident = type`	Assignment/equivalence
`==`	`expr == expr`	Equality comparison	`PartialEq`
`=>`	`pat => expr`	Part of match arm syntax
`>`	`expr > expr`	Greater than comparison	`PartialOrd`
`>=`	`expr >= expr`	Greater than or equal to comparison	`PartialOrd`
`>>`	`expr >> expr`	Right-shift	`Shr`
`>>=`	`var >>= expr`	Right-shift and assignment	`ShrAssign`
`@`	`ident @ pat`	Pattern binding
`^`	`expr ^ expr`	Bitwise exclusive OR	`BitXor`
`^=`	`var ^= expr`	Bitwise exclusive OR and assignment	`BitXorAssign`
`\|`	`pat \| pat`	Pattern alternatives
`\|`	`expr \| expr`	Bitwise OR	`BitOr`
`\|=`	`var \|= expr`	Bitwise OR and assignment	`BitOrAssign`
`\|\|`	`expr \|\| expr`	Short-circuiting logical OR
`?`	`expr?`	Error propagation

Non-operator Symbols

The following list contains all non-letters that don’t function as operators; that is, they don’t behave like a function or method call.

Table B-2 shows symbols that appear on their own and are valid in a variety of locations.

Table B-2: Stand-Alone Syntax

Symbol	Explanation
`'ident`	Named lifetime or loop label
`...u8`, `...i32`, `...f64`, `...usize`, etc.	Numeric literal of specific type
`"..."`	String literal
`r"..."`, `r#"..."#`, `r##"..."##`, etc.	Raw string literal, escape characters not processed
`b"..."`	Byte string literal; constructs a `[u8]` instead of a string
`br"..."`, `br#"..."#`, `br##"..."##`, etc.	Raw byte string literal, combination of raw and byte string literal
`'...'`	Character literal
`b'...'`	ASCII byte literal
`\|...\| expr`	Closure
`!`	Always empty bottom type for diverging functions
`_`	“Ignored” pattern binding; also used to make integer literals readable

Table B-3 shows symbols that appear in the context of a path through the module hierarchy to an item.

Table B-3: Path-Related Syntax

Symbol	Explanation
`ident::ident`	Namespace path
`::path`	Path relative to the crate root (i.e., an explicitly absolute path)
`self::path`	Path relative to the current module (i.e., an explicitly relative path).
`super::path`	Path relative to the parent of the current module
`type::ident`, `<type as trait>::ident`	Associated constants, functions, and types
`<type>::...`	Associated item for a type that cannot be directly named (e.g., `<&T>::...`, `<[T]>::...`, etc.)
`trait::method(...)`	Disambiguating a method call by naming the trait that defines it
`type::method(...)`	Disambiguating a method call by naming the type for which it’s defined
`<type as trait>::method(...)`	Disambiguating a method call by naming the trait and type

Table B-4 shows symbols that appear in the context of using generic type parameters.

Table B-4: Generics

Symbol	Explanation
`path<...>`	Specifies parameters to generic type in a type (e.g., `Vec<u8>`)
`path::<...>`, `method::<...>`	Specifies parameters to generic type, function, or method in an expression; often referred to as turbofish (e.g., `"42".parse::<i32>()`)
`fn ident<...> ...`	Define generic function
`struct ident<...> ...`	Define generic structure
`enum ident<...> ...`	Define generic enumeration
`impl<...> ...`	Define generic implementation
`for<...> type`	Higher-ranked lifetime bounds
`type<ident=type>`	A generic type where one or more associated types have specific assignments (e.g., `Iterator<Item=T>`)

Table B-5 shows symbols that appear in the context of constraining generic type parameters with trait bounds.

Table B-5: Trait Bound Constraints

Symbol	Explanation
`T: U`	Generic parameter `T` constrained to types that implement `U`
`T: 'a`	Generic type `T` must outlive lifetime `'a` (meaning the type cannot transitively contain any references with lifetimes shorter than `'a`)
`T: 'static`	Generic type `T` contains no borrowed references other than `'static` ones
`'b: 'a`	Generic lifetime `'b` must outlive lifetime `'a`
`T: ?Sized`	Allow generic type parameter to be a dynamically sized type
`'a + trait`, `trait + trait`	Compound type constraint

Table B-6 shows symbols that appear in the context of calling or defining macros and specifying attributes on an item.

Table B-6: Macros and Attributes

Symbol	Explanation
`#[meta]`	Outer attribute
`#![meta]`	Inner attribute
`$ident`	Macro substitution
`$ident:kind`	Macro capture
`$(…)…`	Macro repetition
`ident!(...)`, `ident!{...}`, `ident![...]`	Macro invocation

Table B-7 shows symbols that create comments.

Table B-7: Comments

Symbol	Explanation
`//`	Line comment
`//!`	Inner line doc comment
`///`	Outer line doc comment
`/.../`	Block comment
`/!.../`	Inner block doc comment
`/*.../`	Outer block doc comment

Table B-8 shows symbols that appear in the context of using tuples.

Table B-8: Tuples

Symbol	Explanation
`()`	Empty tuple (aka unit), both literal and type
`(expr)`	Parenthesized expression
`(expr,)`	Single-element tuple expression
`(type,)`	Single-element tuple type
`(expr, ...)`	Tuple expression
`(type, ...)`	Tuple type
`expr(expr, ...)`	Function call expression; also used to initialize tuple `struct`s and tuple `enum` variants
`expr.0`, `expr.1`, etc.	Tuple indexing

Table B-9 shows the contexts in which curly braces are used.

Table B-9: Curly Brackets

Context	Explanation
`{...}`	Block expression
`Type {...}`	`struct` literal

Table B-10 shows the contexts in which square brackets are used.

Table B-10: Square Brackets

Context	Explanation
`[...]`	Array literal
`[expr; len]`	Array literal containing `len` copies of `expr`
`[type; len]`	Array type containing `len` instances of `type`
`expr[expr]`	Collection indexing. Overloadable (`Index`, `IndexMut`)
`expr[..]`, `expr[a..]`, `expr[..b]`, `expr[a..b]`	Collection indexing pretending to be collection slicing, using `Range`, `RangeFrom`, `RangeTo`, or `RangeFull` as the “index”