Arraygen

This crate provides Arraygen derive macro for structs, which generates methods returning arrays filled with the selected struct fields.

Complete example:

#[derive(Arraygen, Debug)]
#[gen_array(fn get_names: &mut String)]
struct Person {
    #[in_array(get_names)]
    first_name: String,
    #[in_array(get_names)]
    last_name: String,
}

let mut person = Person {
    first_name: "Ada".into(),
    last_name: "Lovelace".into()
};

for name in person.get_names() {
    *name = name.to_lowercase();
}

assert_eq!(
    format!("{:?}", person),
    "Person { first_name: \"ada\", last_name: \"lovelace\" }"
);
// PASSES !
// Notice how it was not lowercased on object creation
// but now it is.

As you can see above, the gen_array attribute generates a new method returning an array of the indicated type. Additionally, the in_array attribute tells which fields are contained within the array returned by that method.

What Arraygen does under the hood is simply generating the following impl:

impl Person {
    #[inline(always)]
    fn get_names(&mut self) -> [&mut String; 2] {
        [&mut self.first_name, &mut self.last_name]
    }
}

The attribute gen_array:

For generating an Arraygen method you have to use the attribute gen_array on top of the struct. There you will indicate the method name and the return type. Optionally, you can also indicate the visibility or an implicit_select_all clause. In the following example you'll see how to tweak the visibility:

#[derive(Arraygen)]
#[gen_array(pub(crate) fn get_strings: &String)]
struct Foo {...}

In the code above, the struct Foo would have a new method with the following signature:

pub(crate) fn get_strings(&self) -> [&String; ?] {...}

The attribute in_array:

To fill your Arraygen methods with struct fields, you have to use the attribute in_array in each struct field you want to include.

// inside a struct
#[in_array(get_strings)]
id: String,

#[in_array(get_strings, get_names)]
name: String,

You have to match the method name used in gen_array and in_array to include these fields in each generated method. So in this example, assuming gen_strings and get_names are both generated by gen_array, the former will get populated with the fields id and name, and the latter will get populated with the field name.

It is also possible to entirely omit the attribute in_array with the use of an implicit_select_all clause. Check the "implicit_select_all" section in the documentation to learn more about this possibility.

Generating arrays of Trait Objects:

Trait Objects are fully supported, check the Trait Objects section in the documentation to see a few working examples.

Implicit selection of Fields by their Types

With the clause implicit_select_all, you may select fields without using in_array, check this section in the documentation to see an example.

Documentation

For more information, check the documentation page.

Usage

With Cargo, you can add this line to your Cargo.toml:

[dependencies]
arraygen = "0.3.2"

About the Syntax

I'm open to change the syntax for the 1.0 version. Participate in the issue Syntax Proposals to give your opinion on this matter.

Known Problems

Error messages could be improved in a few cases. And there is no proper support for warnings yet. Arraygen prints standard messages instead of warnings at the moment.

GettersByType

This crate is heavily inspired by GettersByType which is another derive that allows you to do the same thing. But that one is more opinionated, less flexible, and less powerful, with the only advantage of being less verbose. That's why I decided to work on this new solution.

License

MIT