Trait Copy

1.0.0 · Source

pub trait Copy: Clone { }

Expand description

⌗ core Types whose values can be duplicated simply by copying bits. (Derivable)

^📍^{code/marker::Copy} ^{re-exported from core::marker}

📜
Types whose values can be duplicated simply by copying bits.

By default, variable bindings have ‘move semantics.’ In other words:

#[derive(Debug)]
struct Foo;

let x = Foo;

let y = x;

// `x` has moved into `y`, and so cannot be used

// println!("{x:?}"); // error: use of moved value

However, if a type implements Copy, it instead has ‘copy semantics’:

// We can derive a `Copy` implementation. `Clone` is also required, as it's
// a supertrait of `Copy`.
#[derive(Debug, Copy, Clone)]
struct Foo;

let x = Foo;

let y = x;

// `y` is a copy of `x`

println!("{x:?}"); // A-OK!

It’s important to note that in these two examples, the only difference is whether you are allowed to access x after the assignment. Under the hood, both a copy and a move can result in bits being copied in memory, although this is sometimes optimized away.

§How can I implement `Copy`?

There are two ways to implement Copy on your type. The simplest is to use derive:

#[derive(Copy, Clone)]
struct MyStruct;

You can also implement Copy and Clone manually:

struct MyStruct;

impl Copy for MyStruct { }

impl Clone for MyStruct {
    fn clone(&self) -> MyStruct {
        *self
    }
}

There is a small difference between the two. The derive strategy will also place a Copy bound on type parameters:

#[derive(Clone)]
struct MyStruct<T>(T);

impl<T: Copy> Copy for MyStruct<T> { }

This isn’t always desired. For example, shared references (&T) can be copied regardless of whether T is Copy. Likewise, a generic struct containing markers such as PhantomData could potentially be duplicated with a bit-wise copy.

§What’s the difference between `Copy` and `Clone`?

Copies happen implicitly, for example as part of an assignment y = x. The behavior of Copy is not overloadable; it is always a simple bit-wise copy.

Cloning is an explicit action, x.clone(). The implementation of Clone can provide any type-specific behavior necessary to duplicate values safely. For example, the implementation of Clone for String needs to copy the pointed-to string buffer in the heap. A simple bitwise copy of String values would merely copy the pointer, leading to a double free down the line. For this reason, String is Clone but not Copy.

Clone is a supertrait of Copy, so everything which is Copy must also implement Clone. If a type is Copy then its Clone implementation only needs to return *self (see the example above).

§When can my type be `Copy`?

A type can implement Copy if all of its components implement Copy. For example, this struct can be Copy:

#[derive(Copy, Clone)]
struct Point {
   x: i32,
   y: i32,
}

A struct can be Copy, and i32 is Copy, therefore Point is eligible to be Copy. By contrast, consider

struct PointList {
    points: Vec<Point>,
}

The struct PointList cannot implement Copy, because Vec<T> is not Copy. If we attempt to derive a Copy implementation, we’ll get an error:

the trait `Copy` cannot be implemented for this type; field `points` does not implement `Copy`

Shared references (&T) are also Copy, so a type can be Copy, even when it holds shared references of types T that are not Copy. Consider the following struct, which can implement Copy, because it only holds a shared reference to our non-Copy type PointList from above:

#[derive(Copy, Clone)]
struct PointListWrapper<'a> {
    point_list_ref: &'a PointList,
}

§When can’t my type be `Copy`?

Some types can’t be copied safely. For example, copying &mut T would create an aliased mutable reference. Copying String would duplicate responsibility for managing the String’s buffer, leading to a double free.

Generalizing the latter case, any type implementing Drop can’t be Copy, because it’s managing some resource besides its own size_of::<T> bytes.

If you try to implement Copy on a struct or enum containing non-Copy data, you will get the error E0204.

§When should my type be `Copy`?

Generally speaking, if your type can implement Copy, it should. Keep in mind, though, that implementing Copy is part of the public API of your type. If the type might become non-Copy in the future, it could be prudent to omit the Copy implementation now, to avoid a breaking API change.

§Additional implementors

In addition to the implementors listed below, the following types also implement Copy:

Function item types (i.e., the distinct types defined for each function)
Function pointer types (e.g., fn() -> i32)
Closure types, if they capture no value from the environment or if all such captured values implement Copy themselves. Note that variables captured by shared reference always implement Copy (even if the referent doesn’t), while variables captured by mutable reference never implement Copy.

Dyn Compatibility§

This trait is not dyn compatible.

In older versions of Rust, dyn compatibility was called "object safety".

Implementors§

1.100.0 · Source§

Copy

Trait Copy Copy item path

§How can I implement Copy?

§What’s the difference between Copy and Clone?

§When can my type be Copy?

§When can’t my type be Copy?

§When should my type be Copy?

§Additional implementors

Dyn Compatibility§

Implementors§

impl Copy for !

impl Copy for Abi

impl Copy for AccessError

impl Copy for Adam7Pass

impl Copy for Adam7Row

impl Copy for Adam7Rows

impl Copy for Adler32

impl Copy for core::mem::alignment::Alignment

impl Copy for devela::all::FmtAlignment

impl Copy for AllocError

impl Copy for AlsaError

impl Copy for jiff::tz::ambiguous::AmbiguousOffset

impl Copy for jiff_core::tz::offset::AmbiguousOffset

impl Copy for jiff::tz::ambiguous::AmbiguousTimestamp

impl Copy for jiff_core::tz::offset::AmbiguousTimestamp

impl Copy for AngleDirection

impl Copy for AngleKind

impl Copy for AnsiColor

impl Copy for AnsiColor3

impl Copy for AnsiColor8

impl Copy for AppControl

impl Copy for AppControlSet

impl Copy for ArenaAllocHandleExample

impl Copy for ArenaAllocMarkExample

impl Copy for ArenaBytesAllocHandleExample

impl Copy for ArenaBytesAllocMarkExample

impl Copy for ArenaBytesHandleExample

impl Copy for ArenaBytesMarkExample

impl Copy for ArenaHandleExample

impl Copy for ArenaMarkExample

impl Copy for ArenaStringAllocHandleExample

impl Copy for ArenaStringAllocMarkExample

impl Copy for ArenaStringHandleExample

impl Copy for ArenaStringMarkExample

impl Copy for AsciiChar

impl Copy for AsciiSet

impl Copy for Assume

impl Copy for AudioChannel

impl Copy for AudioChannels

impl Copy for AudioDeviceDir

impl Copy for AudioStreamDir

impl Copy for BacktraceStyle

impl Copy for BdfError

impl Copy for BinTag4

impl Copy for BitfieldExample

impl Copy for BoundI8Example

impl Copy for Boundary1d

impl Copy for Boundary2d

impl Copy for Boundary3d

impl Copy for BoundsError

impl Copy for Boxed

impl Copy for CacheInfo

impl Copy for CacheInfoType

impl Copy for CacheParameter

impl Copy for CallBindTime

impl Copy for CallContext

impl Copy for CallDispatch

impl Copy for CallOpenness

impl Copy for CallSemantics

impl Copy for CallStorage

impl Copy for CharAscii

impl Copy for CharCase

impl Copy for CharTryFromError

impl Copy for CheckedCastError

impl Copy for CodeLocation

impl Copy for CodeSpan

impl Copy for ColorDepth

impl Copy for CompressionMode

impl Copy for Coverage8

impl Copy for CpuIdReaderNative