Crate maybe_string

Provides a newtype wrapper MaybeString and its slice counterpart MaybeStr that represents a byte vector that may be a valid UTF-8 string.

These wrappers are useful when working with data that may be a valid UTF-8 string and you want to delay or conditionally skip its conversion to the string.

They are also useful for debugging data that may be displayed as a string. The Debug output will provide string representation when the wrapped byte vector is a valid UTF-8 string.

Usage examples

Debugging byte vectors

use maybe_string::MaybeString;

// invalid UTF-8 bytes
let ms = MaybeString(vec![0, 159, 146, 150]);
assert_eq!(&format!("{:?}", ms), "[00, 9f, 92, 96]");

// valid UTF-8 bytes
let ms = MaybeString(vec![240, 159, 146, 150]);
assert_eq!(&format!("{:?}", ms), "\"💖\"");

Converting to a string

use maybe_string::MaybeString;

// invalid UTF-8 bytes
let ms = MaybeString(vec![0, 159, 146, 150]);
assert_eq!(ms.into_string(), Err(vec![0, 159, 146, 150]));

// valid UTF-8 bytes
let ms = MaybeString(vec![240, 159, 146, 150]);
assert_eq!(ms.into_string(), Ok("💖".to_string()));

Serde

Implementations of Serialize and Deserialize for MaybeString and Serialize for MaybeStr can be enabled with serde feature flag.

Structs

MaybeStr

MaybeString slices.

MaybeString

A newtype wrapper that represents a byte vector that may be a valid UTF-8 string.