Trait Clone

1.0.0 · Source

pub trait Clone: Sized {
    // Required method
    fn clone(&self) -> Self;

    // Provided method
    fn clone_from(&mut self, source: &Self) { ... }
}

Expand description

A common trait for the ability to explicitly duplicate an object.

Differs from Copy in that Copy is implicit and an inexpensive bit-wise copy, while Clone is always explicit and may or may not be expensive. In order to enforce these characteristics, Rust does not allow you to reimplement Copy, but you may reimplement Clone and run arbitrary code.

Since Clone is more general than Copy, you can automatically make anything Copy be Clone as well.

§Derivable

This trait can be used with #[derive] if all fields are Clone. The derived implementation of Clone calls clone on each field.

For a generic struct, #[derive] implements Clone conditionally by adding bound Clone on generic parameters.

// `derive` implements Clone for Reading<T> when T is Clone.
#[derive(Clone)]
struct Reading<T> {
    frequency: T,
}

§How can I implement `Clone`?

Types that are Copy should have a trivial implementation of Clone. More formally: if T: Copy, x: T, and y: &T, then let x = y.clone(); is equivalent to let x = *y;. Manual implementations should be careful to uphold this invariant; however, unsafe code must not rely on it to ensure memory safety.

An example is a generic struct holding a function pointer. In this case, the implementation of Clone cannot be derived, but can be implemented as:

struct Generate<T>(fn() -> T);

impl<T> Copy for Generate<T> {}

impl<T> Clone for Generate<T> {
    fn clone(&self) -> Self {
        *self
    }
}

If we derive:

#[derive(Copy, Clone)]
struct Generate<T>(fn() -> T);

the auto-derived implementations will have unnecessary T: Copy and T: Clone bounds:


// Automatically derived
impl<T: Copy> Copy for Generate<T> { }

// Automatically derived
impl<T: Clone> Clone for Generate<T> {
    fn clone(&self) -> Generate<T> {
        Generate(Clone::clone(&self.0))
    }
}

The bounds are unnecessary because clearly the function itself should be copy- and cloneable even if its return type is not:

#[derive(Copy, Clone)]
struct Generate<T>(fn() -> T);

struct NotCloneable;

fn generate_not_cloneable() -> NotCloneable {
    NotCloneable
}

Generate(generate_not_cloneable).clone(); // error: trait bounds were not satisfied
// Note: With the manual implementations the above line will compile.

§Additional implementors

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

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 Clone themselves. Note that variables captured by shared reference always implement Clone (even if the referent doesn’t), while variables captured by mutable reference never implement Clone.

Required Methods§

1.0.0 · Source

fn clone(&self) -> Self

Returns a copy of the value.

§Examples

let hello = "Hello"; // &str implements Clone

assert_eq!("Hello", hello.clone());

Provided Methods§

1.0.0 · Source

fn clone_from(&mut self, source: &Self)

Performs copy-assignment from source.

a.clone_from(&b) is equivalent to a = b.clone() in functionality, but can be overridden to reuse the resources of a to avoid unnecessary allocations.

Dyn Compatibility§

This trait is not dyn compatible.

In older versions of Rust, dyn compatibility was called "object safety", so this trait is not object safe.

Trait CloneCopy item path

§Derivable

§How can I implement Clone?

§Additional implementors

Required Methods§

fn clone(&self) -> Self

§Examples

Provided Methods§

fn clone_from(&mut self, source: &Self)

Dyn Compatibility§

Implementors§

impl Clone for ConversionError

impl Clone for gstd::errors::CoreError

impl Clone for gstd::errors::Error

impl Clone for ErrorReplyReason

impl Clone for ExecutionError

impl Clone for ExtError

impl Clone for MemoryError

impl Clone for MessageError

impl Clone for ReplyCode

impl Clone for ReservationError

impl Clone for SignalCode

impl Clone for SimpleExecutionError

impl Clone for SimpleProgramCreationError

impl Clone for SuccessReplyReason

impl Clone for UsageError

impl Clone for AsciiChar

impl Clone for gstd::prelude::cmp::Ordering

impl Clone for TryReserveErrorKind

impl Clone for gstd::prelude::collections::hashbrown::TryReserveError

impl Clone for Infallible

impl Clone for FromBytesWithNulError

impl Clone for gstd::prelude::fmt::Alignment

impl Clone for DebugAsHex

impl Clone for Sign

impl Clone for IpAddr

impl Clone for Ipv6MulticastScope

impl Clone for SocketAddr

impl Clone for core::sync::atomic::Ordering

impl Clone for bs58::alphabet::Error

impl Clone for bs58::decode::Error

impl Clone for bs58::encode::Error

impl Clone for byte_slice_cast::Error

impl Clone for BigEndian

impl Clone for LittleEndian

impl Clone for TruncSide

impl Clone for PollNext

impl Clone for hex::error::FromHexError

impl Clone for rustc_hex::FromHexError

impl Clone for MetaForm

impl Clone for PortableForm

impl Clone for TypeDefPrimitive

impl Clone for FromStrRadixErrKind

impl Clone for FpCategory

impl Clone for IntErrorKind

impl Clone for GetDisjointMutError

impl Clone for SearchStep

impl Clone for bool

impl Clone for char

impl Clone for f16

impl Clone for f32

impl Clone for f64

impl Clone for f128

impl Clone for i8

impl Clone for i16

impl Clone for i32

impl Clone for i64

impl Clone for i128

impl Clone for isize

impl Clone for !

impl Clone for u8

impl Clone for u16

impl Clone for u32

impl Clone for u64

impl Clone for u128

impl Clone for usize

impl Clone for gstd::errors::CodecError

impl Clone for ErrorReplyPayload

impl Clone for SyscallError

impl Clone for gstd::msg::MessageHandle

Trait Clone

§How can I implement `Clone`?