mirror of https://github.com/Dhghomon/easy_rust
You cannot select more than 25 topics
Topics must start with a letter or number, can include dashes ('-') and can be up to 35 characters long.
214 lines
20 KiB
HTML
214 lines
20 KiB
HTML
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
|
|
<html lang="en" class="sidebar-visible no-js light">
|
|
<head>
|
|
<!-- Book generated using mdBook -->
|
|
<meta charset="UTF-8">
|
|
<title> The stack, the heap, and pointers - Easy Rust</title>
|
|
<!-- Custom HTML head -->
|
|
<meta content="text/html; charset=utf-8" http-equiv="Content-Type">
|
|
<meta name="description" content="">
|
|
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
|
|
<meta name="theme-color" content="#ffffff" />
|
|
|
|
<link rel="icon" href="favicon.svg">
|
|
<link rel="shortcut icon" href="favicon.png">
|
|
<link rel="stylesheet" href="css/variables.css">
|
|
<link rel="stylesheet" href="css/general.css">
|
|
<link rel="stylesheet" href="css/chrome.css">
|
|
<link rel="stylesheet" href="css/print.css" media="print">
|
|
<!-- Fonts -->
|
|
<link rel="stylesheet" href="FontAwesome/css/font-awesome.css">
|
|
<link rel="stylesheet" href="fonts/fonts.css">
|
|
<!-- Highlight.js Stylesheets -->
|
|
<link rel="stylesheet" href="highlight.css">
|
|
<link rel="stylesheet" href="tomorrow-night.css">
|
|
<link rel="stylesheet" href="ayu-highlight.css">
|
|
|
|
<!-- Custom theme stylesheets -->
|
|
</head>
|
|
<body>
|
|
<!-- Provide site root to javascript -->
|
|
<script type="text/javascript">
|
|
var path_to_root = "";
|
|
var default_theme = window.matchMedia("(prefers-color-scheme: dark)").matches ? "navy" : "light";
|
|
</script>
|
|
|
|
<!-- Work around some values being stored in localStorage wrapped in quotes -->
|
|
<script type="text/javascript">
|
|
try {
|
|
var theme = localStorage.getItem('mdbook-theme');
|
|
var sidebar = localStorage.getItem('mdbook-sidebar');
|
|
|
|
if (theme.startsWith('"') && theme.endsWith('"')) {
|
|
localStorage.setItem('mdbook-theme', theme.slice(1, theme.length - 1));
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
if (sidebar.startsWith('"') && sidebar.endsWith('"')) {
|
|
localStorage.setItem('mdbook-sidebar', sidebar.slice(1, sidebar.length - 1));
|
|
}
|
|
} catch (e) { }
|
|
</script>
|
|
|
|
<!-- Set the theme before any content is loaded, prevents flash -->
|
|
<script type="text/javascript">
|
|
var theme;
|
|
try { theme = localStorage.getItem('mdbook-theme'); } catch(e) { }
|
|
if (theme === null || theme === undefined) { theme = default_theme; }
|
|
var html = document.querySelector('html');
|
|
html.classList.remove('no-js')
|
|
html.classList.remove('light')
|
|
html.classList.add(theme);
|
|
html.classList.add('js');
|
|
</script>
|
|
|
|
<!-- Hide / unhide sidebar before it is displayed -->
|
|
<script type="text/javascript">
|
|
var html = document.querySelector('html');
|
|
var sidebar = 'hidden';
|
|
if (document.body.clientWidth >= 1080) {
|
|
try { sidebar = localStorage.getItem('mdbook-sidebar'); } catch(e) { }
|
|
sidebar = sidebar || 'visible';
|
|
}
|
|
html.classList.remove('sidebar-visible');
|
|
html.classList.add("sidebar-" + sidebar);
|
|
</script>
|
|
|
|
<nav id="sidebar" class="sidebar" aria-label="Table of contents">
|
|
<div class="sidebar-scrollbox">
|
|
<ol class="chapter"><li class="chapter-item expanded "><a href="Chapter_0.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">1.</strong> Updates</a></li><li class="chapter-item expanded "><a href="Chapter_1.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">2.</strong> Introduction</a></li><li class="chapter-item expanded "><a href="Chapter_2.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">3.</strong> Who am I?</a></li><li class="chapter-item expanded "><a href="Chapter_3.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">4.</strong> Writing Rust in Easy English</a></li><li class="chapter-item expanded "><a href="Chapter_4.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">5.</strong> Rust Playground</a></li><li class="chapter-item expanded "><a href="Chapter_5.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">6.</strong> 🚧 and ⚠️</a></li><li class="chapter-item expanded "><a href="Chapter_6.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">7.</strong> Comments</a></li><li class="chapter-item expanded "><a href="Chapter_7.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">8.</strong> Types</a></li><li class="chapter-item expanded "><a href="Chapter_8.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">9.</strong> Type inference</a></li><li class="chapter-item expanded "><a href="Chapter_9.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">10.</strong> Printing 'hello, world!'</a></li><li class="chapter-item expanded "><a href="Chapter_10.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">11.</strong> Display and debug</a></li><li class="chapter-item expanded "><a href="Chapter_11.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">12.</strong> Mutability (changing)</a></li><li class="chapter-item expanded "><a href="Chapter_12.html" class="active"><strong aria-hidden="true">13.</strong> The stack, the heap, and pointers</a></li><li class="chapter-item expanded "><a href="Chapter_13.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">14.</strong> More about printing</a></li><li class="chapter-item expanded "><a href="Chapter_14.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">15.</strong> Strings</a></li><li class="chapter-item expanded "><a href="Chapter_15.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">16.</strong> const and static</a></li><li class="chapter-item expanded "><a href="Chapter_16.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">17.</strong> More on references</a></li><li class="chapter-item expanded "><a href="Chapter_17.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">18.</strong> Mutable references</a></li><li class="chapter-item expanded "><a href="Chapter_18.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">19.</strong> Giving references to functions</a></li><li class="chapter-item expanded "><a href="Chapter_19.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">20.</strong> Copy types</a></li><li class="chapter-item expanded "><a href="Chapter_20.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">21.</strong> Collection types</a></li><li class="chapter-item expanded "><a href="Chapter_21.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">22.</strong> Vectors</a></li><li class="chapter-item expanded "><a href="Chapter_22.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">23.</strong> Tuples</a></li><li class="chapter-item expanded "><a href="Chapter_23.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">24.</strong> Control flow</a></li><li class="chapter-item expanded "><a href="Chapter_24.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">25.</strong> Structs</a></li><li class="chapter-item expanded "><a href="Chapter_25.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">26.</strong> Enums</a></li><li class="chapter-item expanded "><a href="Chapter_26.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">27.</strong> Loops</a></li><li class="chapter-item expanded "><a href="Chapter_27.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">28.</strong> Implementing structs and enums</a></li><li class="chapter-item expanded "><a href="Chapter_28.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">29.</strong> Destructuring</a></li><li class="chapter-item expanded "><a href="Chapter_29.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">30.</strong> References and the dot operator</a></li><li class="chapter-item expanded "><a href="Chapter_30.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">31.</strong> Generics</a></li><li class="chapter-item expanded "><a href="Chapter_31.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">32.</strong> Option and Result</a></li><li class="chapter-item expanded "><a href="Chapter_32.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">33.</strong> Other collections</a></li><li class="chapter-item expanded "><a href="Chapter_33.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">34.</strong> The ? operator</a></li><li class="chapter-item expanded "><a href="Chapter_34.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">35.</strong> Traits</a></li><li class="chapter-item expanded "><a href="Chapter_35.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">36.</strong> Chaining methods</a></li><li class="chapter-item expanded "><a href="Chapter_36.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">37.</strong> Iterators</a></li><li class="chapter-item expanded "><a href="Chapter_37.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">38.</strong> Closures</a></li><li class="chapter-item expanded "><a href="Chapter_38.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">39.</strong> The dbg! macro and .inspect</a></li><li class="chapter-item expanded "><a href="Chapter_39.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">40.</strong> Types of &str</a></li><li class="chapter-item expanded "><a href="Chapter_40.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">41.</strong> Lifetimes</a></li><li class="chapter-item expanded "><a href="Chapter_41.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">42.</strong> Interior mutability</a></li><li class="chapter-item expanded "><a href="Chapter_42.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">43.</strong> Cow</a></li><li class="chapter-item expanded "><a href="Chapter_43.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">44.</strong> Type aliases</a></li><li class="chapter-item expanded "><a href="Chapter_44.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">45.</strong> The todo! macro</a></li><li class="chapter-item expanded "><a href="Chapter_45.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">46.</strong> Rc</a></li><li class="chapter-item expanded "><a href="Chapter_46.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">47.</strong> Multiple threads</a></li><li class="chapter-item expanded "><a href="Chapter_47.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">48.</strong> Closures in functions</a></li><li class="chapter-item expanded "><a href="Chapter_48.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">49.</strong> impl Trait</a></li><li class="chapter-item expanded "><a href="Chapter_49.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">50.</strong> Arc</a></li><li class="chapter-item expanded "><a href="Chapter_50.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">51.</strong> Channels</a></li><li class="chapter-item expanded "><a href="Chapter_51.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">52.</strong> Reading Rust documentation</a></li><li class="chapter-item expanded "><a href="Chapter_52.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">53.</strong> Attributes</a></li><li class="chapter-item expanded "><a href="Chapter_53.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">54.</strong> Box</a></li><li class="chapter-item expanded "><a href="Chapter_54.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">55.</strong> Box around traits</a></li><li class="chapter-item expanded "><a href="Chapter_55.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">56.</strong> Default and the builder pattern</a></li><li class="chapter-item expanded "><a href="Chapter_56.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">57.</strong> Deref and DerefMut</a></li><li class="chapter-item expanded "><a href="Chapter_57.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">58.</strong> Crates and modules</a></li><li class="chapter-item expanded "><a href="Chapter_58.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">59.</strong> Testing</a></li><li class="chapter-item expanded "><a href="Chapter_59.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">60.</strong> External crates</a></li><li class="chapter-item expanded "><a href="Chapter_60.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">61.</strong> A tour of the standard library</a></li><li class="chapter-item expanded "><a href="Chapter_61.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">62.</strong> Writing macros</a></li><li class="chapter-item expanded "><a href="Chapter_62.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">63.</strong> cargo</a></li><li class="chapter-item expanded "><a href="Chapter_63.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">64.</strong> Taking user input</a></li><li class="chapter-item expanded "><a href="Chapter_64.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">65.</strong> Using files</a></li><li class="chapter-item expanded "><a href="Chapter_65.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">66.</strong> cargo doc</a></li><li class="chapter-item expanded "><a href="Chapter_66.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">67.</strong> The end?</a></li></ol>
|
|
</div>
|
|
<div id="sidebar-resize-handle" class="sidebar-resize-handle"></div>
|
|
</nav>
|
|
|
|
<div id="page-wrapper" class="page-wrapper">
|
|
|
|
<div class="page">
|
|
<div id="menu-bar-hover-placeholder"></div>
|
|
<div id="menu-bar" class="menu-bar sticky bordered">
|
|
<div class="left-buttons">
|
|
<button id="sidebar-toggle" class="icon-button" type="button" title="Toggle Table of Contents" aria-label="Toggle Table of Contents" aria-controls="sidebar">
|
|
<i class="fa fa-bars"></i>
|
|
</button>
|
|
<button id="theme-toggle" class="icon-button" type="button" title="Change theme" aria-label="Change theme" aria-haspopup="true" aria-expanded="false" aria-controls="theme-list">
|
|
<i class="fa fa-paint-brush"></i>
|
|
</button>
|
|
<ul id="theme-list" class="theme-popup" aria-label="Themes" role="menu">
|
|
<li role="none"><button role="menuitem" class="theme" id="light">Light (default)</button></li>
|
|
<li role="none"><button role="menuitem" class="theme" id="rust">Rust</button></li>
|
|
<li role="none"><button role="menuitem" class="theme" id="coal">Coal</button></li>
|
|
<li role="none"><button role="menuitem" class="theme" id="navy">Navy</button></li>
|
|
<li role="none"><button role="menuitem" class="theme" id="ayu">Ayu</button></li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
<button id="search-toggle" class="icon-button" type="button" title="Search. (Shortkey: s)" aria-label="Toggle Searchbar" aria-expanded="false" aria-keyshortcuts="S" aria-controls="searchbar">
|
|
<i class="fa fa-search"></i>
|
|
</button>
|
|
</div>
|
|
|
|
<h1 class="menu-title">Easy Rust</h1>
|
|
|
|
<div class="right-buttons">
|
|
<a href="print.html" title="Print this book" aria-label="Print this book">
|
|
<i id="print-button" class="fa fa-print"></i>
|
|
</a>
|
|
</div>
|
|
</div>
|
|
|
|
<div id="search-wrapper" class="hidden">
|
|
<form id="searchbar-outer" class="searchbar-outer">
|
|
<input type="search" id="searchbar" name="searchbar" placeholder="Search this book ..." aria-controls="searchresults-outer" aria-describedby="searchresults-header">
|
|
</form>
|
|
<div id="searchresults-outer" class="searchresults-outer hidden">
|
|
<div id="searchresults-header" class="searchresults-header"></div>
|
|
<ul id="searchresults">
|
|
</ul>
|
|
</div>
|
|
</div>
|
|
<!-- Apply ARIA attributes after the sidebar and the sidebar toggle button are added to the DOM -->
|
|
<script type="text/javascript">
|
|
document.getElementById('sidebar-toggle').setAttribute('aria-expanded', sidebar === 'visible');
|
|
document.getElementById('sidebar').setAttribute('aria-hidden', sidebar !== 'visible');
|
|
Array.from(document.querySelectorAll('#sidebar a')).forEach(function(link) {
|
|
link.setAttribute('tabIndex', sidebar === 'visible' ? 0 : -1);
|
|
});
|
|
</script>
|
|
|
|
<div id="content" class="content">
|
|
<main>
|
|
<h2 id="the-stack-the-heap-and-pointers"><a class="header" href="#the-stack-the-heap-and-pointers">The stack, the heap, and pointers</a></h2>
|
|
<p>The stack, the heap, and pointers are very important in Rust.</p>
|
|
<p>The stack and the heap are two places to keep memory in computers. The important differences are:</p>
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li>The stack is very fast, but the heap is not so fast. It's not super slow either, but the stack is always faster. But you can't just use the stack all the time, because:</li>
|
|
<li>Rust needs to know the size of a variable at compile time. So simple variables like <code>i32</code> go on the stack, because we know their exact size. You always know that an <code>i32</code> is going to be 4 bytes, because 32 bits = 4 bytes. So <code>i32</code> can always go on the stack.</li>
|
|
<li>But some types don't know the size at compile time. But the stack needs to know the exact size. So what do you do? First you put the data in the heap, because the heap can have any size of data. And then to find it a pointer goes on the stack. This is fine because we always know the size of a pointer. So then the computer first goes to the stack, reads the pointer, and follows it to the heap where the data is.</li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
<p>Pointers sound complicated, but they are easy. Pointers are like a table of contents in a book. Imagine this book:</p>
|
|
<pre><code class="language-text">MY BOOK
|
|
|
|
TABLE OF CONTENTS
|
|
|
|
Chapter Page
|
|
Chapter 1: My life 1
|
|
Chapter 2: My cat 15
|
|
Chapter 3: My job 23
|
|
Chapter 4: My family 30
|
|
Chapter 5: Future plans 43
|
|
</code></pre>
|
|
<p>So this is like five pointers. You can read them and find the information they are talking about. Where is the chapter "My life"? It's on page 1 (it <em>points</em> to page 1). Where is the chapter "My job?" It's on page 23.</p>
|
|
<p>The pointer you usually see in Rust is called a <strong>reference</strong>. This is the important part to know: a reference points to the memory of another value. A reference means you <em>borrow</em> the value, but you don't own it. It's the same as our book: the table of contents doesn't own the information. It's the chapters that own the information. In Rust, references have a <code>&</code> in front of them. So:</p>
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li><code>let my_variable = 8</code> makes a regular variable, but</li>
|
|
<li><code>let my_reference = &my_variable</code> makes a reference.</li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
<p>You read <code>my_reference = &my_variable</code> like this: "my_reference is a reference to my_variable". Or: "my_reference refers to my_variable".</p>
|
|
<p>This means that <code>my_reference</code> is only looking at the data of <code>my_variable</code>. <code>my_variable</code> still owns its data.</p>
|
|
<p>You can also have a reference to a reference, or any number of references.</p>
|
|
<pre><pre class="playground"><code class="language-rust">fn main() {
|
|
let my_number = 15; // This is an i32
|
|
let single_reference = &my_number; // This is a &i32
|
|
let double_reference = &single_reference; // This is a &&i32
|
|
let five_references = &&&&&my_number; // This is a &&&&&i32
|
|
}
|
|
</code></pre></pre>
|
|
<p>These are all different types, just in the same way that "a friend of a friend" is different from "a friend".</p>
|
|
|
|
</main>
|
|
|
|
<nav class="nav-wrapper" aria-label="Page navigation">
|
|
<!-- Mobile navigation buttons -->
|
|
<a rel="prev" href="Chapter_11.html" class="mobile-nav-chapters previous" title="Previous chapter" aria-label="Previous chapter" aria-keyshortcuts="Left">
|
|
<i class="fa fa-angle-left"></i>
|
|
</a>
|
|
<a rel="next" href="Chapter_13.html" class="mobile-nav-chapters next" title="Next chapter" aria-label="Next chapter" aria-keyshortcuts="Right">
|
|
<i class="fa fa-angle-right"></i>
|
|
</a>
|
|
<div style="clear: both"></div>
|
|
</nav>
|
|
</div>
|
|
</div>
|
|
|
|
<nav class="nav-wide-wrapper" aria-label="Page navigation">
|
|
<a rel="prev" href="Chapter_11.html" class="nav-chapters previous" title="Previous chapter" aria-label="Previous chapter" aria-keyshortcuts="Left">
|
|
<i class="fa fa-angle-left"></i>
|
|
</a>
|
|
<a rel="next" href="Chapter_13.html" class="nav-chapters next" title="Next chapter" aria-label="Next chapter" aria-keyshortcuts="Right">
|
|
<i class="fa fa-angle-right"></i>
|
|
</a>
|
|
</nav>
|
|
|
|
</div>
|
|
|
|
<script type="text/javascript">
|
|
window.playground_copyable = true;
|
|
</script>
|
|
<script src="elasticlunr.min.js" type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8"></script>
|
|
<script src="mark.min.js" type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8"></script>
|
|
<script src="searcher.js" type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8"></script>
|
|
<script src="clipboard.min.js" type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8"></script>
|
|
<script src="highlight.js" type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8"></script>
|
|
<script src="book.js" type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8"></script>
|
|
|
|
<!-- Custom JS scripts -->
|
|
</body>
|
|
</html>
|