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<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"><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" class="active"><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 &amp;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>
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<h2 id="giving-references-to-functions"><a class="header" href="#giving-references-to-functions">Giving references to functions</a></h2>
<p><strong>See this chapter on YouTube: <a href="https://youtu.be/mKWXt9YTavc">immutable references</a> and <a href="https://youtu.be/kJV1wIvAbyk">mutable references</a></strong></p>
<p>References are very useful for functions. The rule in Rust on values is: a value can only have one owner.</p>
<p>This code will not work:</p>
<pre><pre class="playground"><code class="language-rust">fn print_country(country_name: String) {
println!(&quot;{}&quot;, country_name);
}
fn main() {
let country = String::from(&quot;Austria&quot;);
print_country(country); // We print &quot;Austria&quot;
print_country(country); // ⚠️ That was fun, let's do it again!
}
</code></pre></pre>
<p>It does not work because <code>country</code> is destroyed. Here's how:</p>
<ul>
<li>Step 1: We create the <code>String</code> called <code>country</code>. <code>country</code> is the owner.</li>
<li>Step 2: We give <code>country</code> to <code>print_country</code>. <code>print_country</code> doesn't have an <code>-&gt;</code>, so it doesn't return anything. After <code>print_country</code> finishes, our <code>String</code> is now dead.</li>
<li>Step 3: We try to give <code>country</code> to <code>print_country</code>, but we already did that. We don't have <code>country</code> to give anymore.</li>
</ul>
<p>We can make <code>print_country</code> give the <code>String</code> back, but it is a bit awkward.</p>
<pre><pre class="playground"><code class="language-rust">fn print_country(country_name: String) -&gt; String {
println!(&quot;{}&quot;, country_name);
country_name // return it here
}
fn main() {
let country = String::from(&quot;Austria&quot;);
let country = print_country(country); // we have to use let here now to get the String back
print_country(country);
}
</code></pre></pre>
<p>Now it prints:</p>
<pre><code class="language-text">Austria
Austria
</code></pre>
<p>The much better way to fix this is by adding <code>&amp;</code>.</p>
<pre><pre class="playground"><code class="language-rust">fn print_country(country_name: &amp;String) {
println!(&quot;{}&quot;, country_name);
}
fn main() {
let country = String::from(&quot;Austria&quot;);
print_country(&amp;country); // We print &quot;Austria&quot;
print_country(&amp;country); // That was fun, let's do it again!
}
</code></pre></pre>
<p>Now <code>print_country()</code> is a function that takes a reference to a <code>String</code>: a <code>&amp;String</code>. Also, we give it a reference to country by writing <code>&amp;country</code>. This says &quot;you can look at it, but I will keep it&quot;.</p>
<p>Now let's do something similar with a mutable reference. Here is an example of a function that uses a mutable variable.</p>
<pre><pre class="playground"><code class="language-rust">fn add_hungary(country_name: &amp;mut String) { // first we say that the function takes a mutable reference
country_name.push_str(&quot;-Hungary&quot;); // push_str() adds a &amp;str to a String
println!(&quot;Now it says: {}&quot;, country_name);
}
fn main() {
let mut country = String::from(&quot;Austria&quot;);
add_hungary(&amp;mut country); // we also need to give it a mutable reference.
}
</code></pre></pre>
<p>This prints <code>Now it says: Austria-Hungary</code>.</p>
<p>So to conclude:</p>
<ul>
<li><code>fn function_name(variable: String)</code> takes a <code>String</code> and owns it. If it doesn't return anything, then the variable dies inside the function.</li>
<li><code>fn function_name(variable: &amp;String)</code> borrows a <code>String</code> and can look at it</li>
<li><code>fn function_name(variable: &amp;mut String)</code> borrows a <code>String</code> and can change it</li>
</ul>
<p>Here is an example that looks like a mutable reference, but it is different.</p>
<pre><pre class="playground"><code class="language-rust">fn main() {
let country = String::from(&quot;Austria&quot;); // country is not mutable, but we are going to print Austria-Hungary. How?
adds_hungary(country);
}
fn adds_hungary(mut country: String) { // Here's how: adds_hungary takes the String and declares it mutable!
country.push_str(&quot;-Hungary&quot;);
println!(&quot;{}&quot;, country);
}
</code></pre></pre>
<p>How is this possible? It is because <code>mut country</code> is not a reference: <code>adds_hungary</code> owns <code>country</code> now. (Remember, it takes <code>String</code> and not <code>&amp;String</code>). The moment you call <code>adds_hungary</code>, it becomes the full owner. <code>country</code> has nothing to do with <code>String::from(&quot;Austria&quot;)</code> anymore. So <code>adds_hungary</code> can take <code>country</code> as mutable, and it is perfectly safe to do so.</p>
<p>Remember our employee Powerpoint and manager situation above? In this situation it is like the employee just giving his whole computer to the manager. The employee won't ever touch it again, so the manager can do anything he wants to it.</p>
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