Unique Pointer

The unique-pointer crate provides an experimental data structure UniquePointer that makes extensive use of [unsafe] rust to provide a shared pointer across other data structures.

This crate is designed to be used as a building block of data-structures and aims at being particularly useful in allowing computer science students to implement data structures such as linked-lists and binary trees in rust while not spending much time tinkering with rust lifetimes.

Crate Features

allow-no-debug

Permits using UniquePointer<T> where T does not implement std::fmt::Debug

cargo add unique-pointer --allow-no-debug

Linked List Example

#[derive(Clone, Debug, Hash)]
pub struct LinkedList<T: Debug> {
    pub item: T,
    pub next: UniquePointer<LinkedList<T>>,
}
impl<T: Debug> LinkedList<T> {
    pub fn new(item: T) -> LinkedList<T> {
        LinkedList {
            item,
            next: UniquePointer::null(),
        }
    }

    pub fn append(&mut self, value: T) -> LinkedList<T> {
        let next = LinkedList::new(value);
        self.next.write_ref(&next);
        next
    }

    pub fn next(&self) -> Option<&LinkedList<T>> {
        self.next.as_ref()
    }

    pub fn len(&self) -> usize {
        let mut length = 1;

        if let Some(next) = self.next() {
            length += 1;
            length += next.len();
        }
        length
    }
}

#[test]
fn test_linked_list() {
    let mut a = LinkedList::new("a");
    let mut b = a.append("b");
    let c = b.append("c");

    assert_eq!(a.len(), 3);
}

More Examples

• binary-tree

  • browse github
  • implementation
  • node tests
  • binary tree tests

• lisp "cons" cell

  • browse github
  • cell implementation
  • cons/car/cdr implementation
  • cell tests
  • cons/car/cdr tests