Skip to content
New issue

Have a question about this project? Sign up for a free GitHub account to open an issue and contact its maintainers and the community.

By clicking “Sign up for GitHub”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy statement. We’ll occasionally send you account related emails.

Already on GitHub? Sign in to your account

Document the union keyword #73867

Merged
merged 2 commits into from
Jul 14, 2020
Merged
Changes from all commits
Commits
File filter

Filter by extension

Filter by extension

Conversations
Failed to load comments.
Loading
Jump to
Jump to file
Failed to load files.
Loading
Diff view
Diff view
68 changes: 66 additions & 2 deletions src/libstd/keyword_docs.rs
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -1624,8 +1624,72 @@ mod dyn_keyword {}
//
/// The [Rust equivalent of a C-style union][union].
///
/// The documentation for this keyword is [not yet complete]. Pull requests welcome!
/// A `union` looks like a [`struct`] in terms of declaration, but all of its
/// fields exist in the same memory, superimposed over one another. For instance,
/// if we wanted some bits in memory that we sometimes interpret as a `u32` and
/// sometimes as an `f32`, we could write:
///
/// ```rust
/// union IntOrFloat {
/// i: u32,
/// f: f32,
/// }
///
/// let mut u = IntOrFloat { f: 1.0 };
/// // Reading the fields of an union is always unsafe
/// assert_eq!(unsafe { u.i }, 1065353216);
/// // Updating through any of the field will modify all of them
/// u.i = 1073741824;
/// assert_eq!(unsafe { u.f }, 2.0);
/// ```
///
/// # Matching on unions
///
/// It is possible to use pattern matching on `union`s. A single field name must
/// be used and it must match the name of one of the `union`'s field.
poliorcetics marked this conversation as resolved.
Show resolved Hide resolved
/// Like reading from a `union`, pattern matching on a `union` requires `unsafe`.
///
/// ```rust
/// union IntOrFloat {
/// i: u32,
/// f: f32,
/// }
///
/// let u = IntOrFloat { f: 1.0 };
///
/// unsafe {
/// match u {
/// IntOrFloat { i: 10 } => println!("Found exactly ten!"),
/// // Matching the field `f` provides an `f32`.
/// IntOrFloat { f } => println!("Found f = {} !", f),
/// }
/// }
/// ```
///
/// # References to union fields
///
/// All fields in a `union` are all at the same place in memory which means
/// borrowing one borrows the entire `union`, for the same lifetime:
///
/// ```rust,compile_fail,E0502
/// union IntOrFloat {
/// i: u32,
/// f: f32,
/// }
///
/// let mut u = IntOrFloat { f: 1.0 };
///
/// let f = unsafe { &u.f };
/// // This will not compile because the field has already been borrowed, even
/// // if only immutably
/// let i = unsafe { &mut u.i };
///
/// *i = 10;
/// println!("f = {} and i = {}", f, i);
/// ```
///
/// See the [Reference][union] for more informations on `union`s.
///
/// [`struct`]: keyword.struct.html
/// [union]: ../reference/items/unions.html
/// [not yet complete]: https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/issues/34601
mod union_keyword {}