Current atruct provides following 2 macros related to anonymous struct:

• atruct!
• #[Return]

They are independent of each other.

atruct!

inspired by structx (that doesn't work now), atruct! macro enables to use variables of anonymous structs like

use atruct::atruct;

fn main() {
    let anonymous = atruct!(
        // Type annotaion is needed for each non-literal value.
        // There are 2 options to annotate type:

        string1 @ String: String::from("string1"),  // @ pattern and
        string2(String): String::from("string2"),  // () pattern.
        // Their behaviors are completely the same. Use any one you like!

        box_option_vec @ Box<Option<Vec<u8>>>: Box::new(Some(Vec::new())),
        vec(Vec<u8>): vec![0, 1, 0, 1, 1],

        nest: {
            a: "you can define nested struct without prepare lots of named structs",
            b: 100usize,  // literals don't need type annotation
        },
    );

    println!("{}", anonymous.string1);  // string1
    println!("{}", anonymous.string2);  // string2
    println!("{:?}", anonymous.box_option_vec);  // Some([])
    println!("{:?}", anonymous.vec);  // [0, 1, 0, 1, 1]
    println!("{}", anonymous.nest.a)  // you can define nested struct without prepare lots of named structs
}

( examples/struct_of_various_values.rs )

• atruct! supports nested structs.

• When atruct was v0.1 only literals are supported as values, BUT in v0.2 you can use (maybe) any type of values!

#[Return]

We usually return more than 1 values from a function. In such situations, Rust supports only tupple as a way to bundle returned values. But it's sometimes a bit anoying: when we'd like to name freely to each field, not 0, 1, 2, ...

#[Return] attribute enables such naming. You can write functions like

use atruct::Return;

fn main() {
    let abc = get_abc();
    println!("{}", abc.a);  // 24
    println!("{}", abc.b);  // you can use any value in a field
    println!("{:?}", abc.c);  // [-1, 0, 0, -1, 1, 0, 1, -1]
}

#[Return(a: u8, b: String, c: Vec<isize>)]  // not supporting nest
fn get_abc() {
    Return {
        a: 24,
        b: "you can use any value in a field".into(),
        c: vec![-1,0,0,-1,1,0,1,-1],
    }
}

( examples/return_struct.rs )

• Unlike atruct!, #[Return] doesn't support nested structs. So returned value is just like a tupple you can give any names to its fields.
• #[Return] automatically generates a struct named as "FunctionName" ( e.g. if function is get_abc, for example, GetAbc ), but at the same time defines a type synonym Return. So you DON't need to memorize the generated struct's name.

NOTICE: I'm plannig to implement #[Atruct] attribute in next version (v0.3). This will enable to define nested struct easily like

#[Atruct]
struct DeepNestedStruct {
    a: Vec<u8>,
    b: struct B: {
        c: String,
        d: struct D {
            e: u8,
            f: u8,
        },
    },
    b2: B,
    e: struct E {
        f: &'static str,
        g: enum G {
            X,
            Y,
            Other {
                name: String,
                id: usize
            },
        },
    },
}