Box<T>

Box 是指向堆上数据的自有指针:

fn main() {
    let five = Box::new(5);
    println!("five: {}", *five);
}
5StackHeapfive

Box<T> 会实现 Deref<Target = T>,这意味着您可以直接在 Box<T> 上通过 T 调用相应方法

Recursive data types or data types with dynamic sizes cannot be stored inline without a pointer indirection. Box accomplishes that indirection:

#[derive(Debug)]
enum List<T> {
    /// A non-empty list: first element and the rest of the list.
    Element(T, Box<List<T>>),
    /// An empty list.
    Nil,
}

fn main() {
    let list: List<i32> =
        List::Element(1, Box::new(List::Element(2, Box::new(List::Nil))));
    println!("{list:?}");
}
StackHeaplistElement1Element2Nil
  • Box is like std::unique_ptr in C++, except that it's guaranteed to be not null.

  • 在以下情况下,Box 可能会很实用:

    • have a type whose size can't be known at compile time, but the Rust compiler wants to know an exact size.
    • 想要转让大量数据的所有权。为避免在堆栈上复制大量数据,请改为将数据存储在 Box 中的堆上,以便仅移动指针。
  • If Box was not used and we attempted to embed a List directly into the List, the compiler would not be able to compute a fixed size for the struct in memory (the List would be of infinite size).

  • Box 大小与一般指针相同,并且只会指向堆中的下一个 List 元素, 因此可以解决这个问题。

  • Remove the Box in the List definition and show the compiler error. We get the message "recursive without indirection", because for data recursion, we have to use indirection, a Box or reference of some kind, instead of storing the value directly.

  • Though Box looks like std::unique_ptr in C++, it cannot be empty/null. This makes Box one of the types that allow the compiler to optimize storage of some enums (the "niche optimization").