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.

Implementors§

1.0.0 · Source§

impl Clone for wiwi::prelude_std::atomic::Ordering

1.0.0 · Source§

impl Clone for wiwi::prelude_std::cmp::Ordering

1.34.0 · Source§

impl Clone for Infallible

1.0.0 · Source§

impl Clone for VarError

1.28.0 · Source§

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 wiwi::prelude_std::atomic::Ordering

impl Clone for wiwi::prelude_std::cmp::Ordering

impl Clone for Infallible

impl Clone for VarError

impl Clone for wiwi::prelude_std::fmt::Alignment

impl Clone for BacktraceStyle

impl Clone for SearchStep

impl Clone for alloc::collections::TryReserveErrorKind

impl Clone for AsciiChar

impl Clone for IpAddr

impl Clone for Ipv6MulticastScope

impl Clone for core::net::socket_addr::SocketAddr

impl Clone for FpCategory

impl Clone for IntErrorKind

impl Clone for SeekFrom

impl Clone for ErrorKind

impl Clone for Shutdown

impl Clone for RecvTimeoutError

impl Clone for std::sync::mpsc::TryRecvError

impl Clone for _Unwind_Action

impl Clone for _Unwind_Reason_Code

impl Clone for Colons

impl Clone for Fixed

impl Clone for Numeric

impl Clone for OffsetPrecision

impl Clone for Pad

impl Clone for ParseErrorKind

impl Clone for SecondsFormat

impl Clone for Month

impl Clone for RoundingError

impl Clone for Weekday

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 wiwi::prelude_std::alloc_mod::AllocError

impl Clone for wiwi::prelude_std::alloc_mod::Global

impl Clone for Layout

impl Clone for LayoutError

impl Clone for System

impl Clone for TryFromSliceError

impl Clone for wiwi::prelude_std::fmt::Error

impl Clone for DefaultHasher

impl Clone for wiwi::prelude_std::hash::RandomState

impl Clone for SipHasher

impl Clone for Assume

impl Clone for RangeFull

impl Clone for wiwi::prelude_std::ptr::Alignment

impl Clone for ParseBoolError

impl Clone for Utf8Error

impl Clone for FromUtf8Error

impl Clone for wiwi::prelude_std::Box<str>

impl Clone for wiwi::prelude_std::Box<CStr>

impl Clone for wiwi::prelude_std::Box<OsStr>

Trait Clone

§How can I implement `Clone`?