Primitive Type str 

String slices.

See also the std::str module.

The str type, also called a ‘string slice’, is the most primitive string type. It is usually seen in its borrowed form, &str. It is also the type of string literals, &'static str.

Basic Usage

String literals are string slices:

let hello_world = "Hello, World!";

Here we have declared a string slice initialized with a string literal. String literals have a static lifetime, which means the string hello_world is guaranteed to be valid for the duration of the entire program. We can explicitly specify hello_world’s lifetime as well:

let hello_world: &'static str = "Hello, world!";

Representation

A &str is made up of two components: a pointer to some bytes, and a length. You can look at these with the as_ptr and len methods:

use std::slice;
use std::str;

let story = "Once upon a time...";

let ptr = story.as_ptr();
let len = story.len();

// story has nineteen bytes
assert_eq!(19, len);

// We can re-build a str out of ptr and len. This is all unsafe because
// we are responsible for making sure the two components are valid:
let s = unsafe {
    // First, we build a &[u8]...
    let slice = slice::from_raw_parts(ptr, len);

    // ... and then convert that slice into a string slice
    str::from_utf8(slice)
};

assert_eq!(s, Ok(story));

Note: This example shows the internals of &str. unsafe should not be used to get a string slice under normal circumstances. Use as_str instead.

Invariant

Rust libraries may assume that string slices are always valid UTF-8.

Constructing a non-UTF-8 string slice is not immediate undefined behavior, but any function called on a string slice may assume that it is valid UTF-8, which means that a non-UTF-8 string slice can lead to undefined behavior down the road.

Implementations

impl str

pub const fn len(&self) -> usize

Returns the length of self.

This length is in bytes, not chars or graphemes. In other words, it might not be what a human considers the length of the string.

Examples

let len = "foo".len();
assert_eq!(3, len);

assert_eq!("ƒoo".len(), 4); // fancy f!
assert_eq!("ƒoo".chars().count(), 3);

pub const fn is_empty(&self) -> bool

Returns true if self has a length of zero bytes.

Examples

let s = "";
assert!(s.is_empty());

let s = "not empty";
assert!(!s.is_empty());

pub const fn from_utf8(v: &[u8]) -> Result<&str, Utf8Error>

Converts a slice of bytes to a string slice.

A string slice (&str) is made of bytes (u8), and a byte slice (&[u8]) is made of bytes, so this function converts between the two. Not all byte slices are valid string slices, however: &str requires that it is valid UTF-8. from_utf8() checks to ensure that the bytes are valid UTF-8, and then does the conversion.

If you are sure that the byte slice is valid UTF-8, and you don’t want to incur the overhead of the validity check, there is an unsafe version of this function, from_utf8_unchecked, which has the same behavior but skips the check.

If you need a String instead of a &str, consider String::from_utf8.

Because you can stack-allocate a [u8; N], and you can take a &[u8] of it, this function is one way to have a stack-allocated string. There is an example of this in the examples section below.

Errors

Returns Err if the slice is not UTF-8 with a description as to why the provided slice is not UTF-8.

Examples

Basic usage:

// some bytes, in a vector
let sparkle_heart = vec![240, 159, 146, 150];

// We can use the ? (try) operator to check if the bytes are valid
let sparkle_heart = str::from_utf8(&sparkle_heart)?;

assert_eq!("💖", sparkle_heart);

Incorrect bytes:

// some invalid bytes, in a vector
let sparkle_heart = vec![0, 159, 146, 150];

assert!(str::from_utf8(&sparkle_heart).is_err());

See the docs for Utf8Error for more details on the kinds of errors that can be returned.

A “stack allocated string”:

// some bytes, in a stack-allocated array
let sparkle_heart = [240, 159, 146, 150];

// We know these bytes are valid, so just use `unwrap()`.
let sparkle_heart: &str = str::from_utf8(&sparkle_heart).unwrap();

assert_eq!("💖", sparkle_heart);

pub const fn from_utf8_mut(v: &mut [u8]) -> Result<&mut str, Utf8Error>

Converts a mutable slice of bytes to a mutable string slice.

Examples

Basic usage:

// "Hello, Rust!" as a mutable vector
let mut hellorust = vec![72, 101, 108, 108, 111, 44, 32, 82, 117, 115, 116, 33];

// As we know these bytes are valid, we can use `unwrap()`
let outstr = str::from_utf8_mut(&mut hellorust).unwrap();

assert_eq!("Hello, Rust!", outstr);

Incorrect bytes:

// Some invalid bytes in a mutable vector
let mut invalid = vec![128, 223];

assert!(str::from_utf8_mut(&mut invalid).is_err());

See the docs for Utf8Error for more details on the kinds of errors that can be returned.

pub const unsafe fn from_utf8_unchecked(v: &[u8]) -> &str

Converts a slice of bytes to a string slice without checking that the string contains valid UTF-8.

See the safe version, from_utf8, for more information.

Safety

The bytes passed in must be valid UTF-8.

Examples

Basic usage:

// some bytes, in a vector
let sparkle_heart = vec![240, 159, 146, 150];

let sparkle_heart = unsafe {
    str::from_utf8_unchecked(&sparkle_heart)
};

assert_eq!("💖", sparkle_heart);

pub const unsafe fn from_utf8_unchecked_mut(v: &mut [u8]) -> &mut str

Converts a slice of bytes to a string slice without checking that the string contains valid UTF-8; mutable version.

See the immutable version, from_utf8_unchecked() for documentation and safety requirements.

Examples

Basic usage:

let mut heart = vec![240, 159, 146, 150];
let heart = unsafe { str::from_utf8_unchecked_mut(&mut heart) };

assert_eq!("💖", heart);

pub const fn is_char_boundary(&self, index: usize) -> bool

Checks that index-th byte is the first byte in a UTF-8 code point sequence or the end of the string.

The start and end of the string (when index == self.len()) are considered to be boundaries.

Returns false if index is greater than self.len().

Examples

let s = "Löwe 老虎 Léopard";
assert!(s.is_char_boundary(0));
// start of `老`
assert!(s.is_char_boundary(6));
assert!(s.is_char_boundary(s.len()));

// second byte of `ö`
assert!(!s.is_char_boundary(2));

// third byte of `老`
assert!(!s.is_char_boundary(8));

pub const fn floor_char_boundary(&self, index: usize) -> usize

Finds the closest x not exceeding index where is_char_boundary(x) is true.

This method can help you truncate a string so that it’s still valid UTF-8, but doesn’t exceed a given number of bytes. Note that this is done purely at the character level and can still visually split graphemes, even though the underlying characters aren’t split. For example, the emoji 🧑‍🔬 (scientist) could be split so that the string only includes 🧑 (person) instead.

Examples

let s = "❤️🧡💛💚💙💜";
assert_eq!(s.len(), 26);
assert!(!s.is_char_boundary(13));

let closest = s.floor_char_boundary(13);
assert_eq!(closest, 10);
assert_eq!(&s[..closest], "❤️🧡");

pub const fn as_bytes(&self) -> &[u8]

Converts a string slice to a byte slice. To convert the byte slice back into a string slice, use the from_utf8 function.

Examples

let bytes = "bors".as_bytes();
assert_eq!(b"bors", bytes);

pub const unsafe fn as_bytes_mut(&mut self) -> &mut [u8]

Converts a mutable string slice to a mutable byte slice.

Safety

The caller must ensure that the content of the slice is valid UTF-8 before the borrow ends and the underlying str is used.

Use of a str whose contents are not valid UTF-8 is undefined behavior.

Examples

Basic usage:

let mut s = String::from("Hello");
let bytes = unsafe { s.as_bytes_mut() };

assert_eq!(b"Hello", bytes);

Mutability:

let mut s = String::from("🗻∈🌏");

unsafe {
    let bytes = s.as_bytes_mut();

    bytes[0] = 0xF0;
    bytes[1] = 0x9F;
    bytes[2] = 0x8D;
    bytes[3] = 0x94;
}

assert_eq!("🍔∈🌏", s);

pub const fn as_ptr(&self) -> *const u8

Converts a string slice to a raw pointer.

As string slices are a slice of bytes, the raw pointer points to a u8. This pointer will be pointing to the first byte of the string slice.

The caller must ensure that the returned pointer is never written to. If you need to mutate the contents of the string slice, use as_mut_ptr.

Examples

let s = "Hello";
let ptr = s.as_ptr();

pub const fn as_mut_ptr(&mut self) -> *mut u8

Converts a mutable string slice to a raw pointer.

As string slices are a slice of bytes, the raw pointer points to a u8. This pointer will be pointing to the first byte of the string slice.

It is your responsibility to make sure that the string slice only gets modified in a way that it remains valid UTF-8.

pub fn chars(&self) -> Chars<'_>

Returns an iterator over the chars of a string slice.

As a string slice consists of valid UTF-8, we can iterate through a string slice by char. This method returns such an iterator.

It’s important to remember that char represents a Unicode Scalar Value, and might not match your idea of what a ‘character’ is. Iteration over grapheme clusters may be what you actually want. This functionality is not provided by Rust’s standard library, check crates.io instead.

Examples

Basic usage:

let word = "goodbye";

let count = word.chars().count();
assert_eq!(7, count);

let mut chars = word.chars();

assert_eq!(Some('g'), chars.next());
assert_eq!(Some('o'), chars.next());
assert_eq!(Some('o'), chars.next());
assert_eq!(Some('d'), chars.next());
assert_eq!(Some('b'), chars.next());
assert_eq!(Some('y'), chars.next());
assert_eq!(Some('e'), chars.next());

assert_eq!(None, chars.next());

Remember, chars might not match your intuition about characters:

let y = "y̆";

let mut chars = y.chars();

assert_eq!(Some('y'), chars.next()); // not 'y̆'
assert_eq!(Some('\u{0306}'), chars.next());

assert_eq!(None, chars.next());

pub fn starts_with<P: Pattern>(&self, pat: P) -> bool

Returns true if the given pattern matches a prefix of this string slice.

Returns false if it does not.

The pattern can be a &str, in which case this function will return true if the &str is a prefix of this string slice.

The pattern can also be a char, a slice of chars, or a function or closure that determines if a character matches. These will only be checked against the first character of this string slice. Look at the second example below regarding behavior for slices of chars.

Examples

let bananas = "bananas";

assert!(bananas.starts_with("bana"));
assert!(!bananas.starts_with("nana"));

let bananas = "bananas";

// Note that both of these assert successfully.
assert!(bananas.starts_with(&['b', 'a', 'n', 'a']));
assert!(bananas.starts_with(&['a', 'b', 'c', 'd']));

pub fn parse<F: FromStr>(&self) -> Result<F, F::Err>

Parses this string slice into another type.

Because parse is so general, it can cause problems with type inference. As such, parse is one of the few times you’ll see the syntax affectionately known as the ‘turbofish’: ::<>. This helps the inference algorithm understand specifically which type you’re trying to parse into.

parse can parse into any type that implements the FromStr trait.

Errors

Will return Err if it’s not possible to parse this string slice into the desired type.

Examples

Basic usage:

let four: u32 = "4".parse().unwrap();

assert_eq!(4, four);

Using the ‘turbofish’ instead of annotating four:

let four = "4".parse::<u32>();

assert_eq!(Ok(4), four);

Failing to parse:

let nope = "j".parse::<u32>();

assert!(nope.is_err());

pub const fn as_str(&self) -> &str

🔬This is a nightly-only experimental API. (str_as_str #130366)

Returns the same string as a string slice &str.

This method is redundant when used directly on &str, but it helps dereferencing other string-like types to string slices, for example references to Box<str> or Arc<str>.

Trait Implementations

impl AsMut<str> for str

fn as_mut(&mut self) -> &mut str

Converts this type into a mutable reference of the (usually inferred) input type.

impl AsRef<[u8]> for str

fn as_ref(&self) -> &[u8]

Converts this type into a shared reference of the (usually inferred) input type.

impl Default for &str

fn default() -> Self

Creates an empty str

impl<I> Index<I> for str

where I: SliceIndex<str>,

type Output = <I as SliceIndex<str>>::Output

The returned type after indexing.

fn index(&self, index: I) -> &I::Output

Performs the indexing (container[index]) operation.

impl<'b> Pattern for &'b str

Non-allocating substring search.

Will handle the pattern "" as returning empty matches at each character boundary.

Examples

assert_eq!("Hello world".find("world"), Some(6));

fn is_prefix_of(self, haystack: &str) -> bool

🔬This is a nightly-only experimental API. (pattern #27721)

Checks whether the pattern matches at the front of the haystack.

type Searcher<'a> = StrSearcher<'a, 'b>

🔬This is a nightly-only experimental API. (pattern #27721)

Associated searcher for this pattern

fn into_searcher(self, haystack: &str) -> StrSearcher<'_, 'b>

🔬This is a nightly-only experimental API. (pattern #27721)

Constructs the associated searcher from self and the haystack to search in.

impl SliceIndex<str> for Range<usize>

Implements substring slicing with syntax &self[begin .. end] or &mut self[begin .. end].

Returns a slice of the given string from the byte range [begin, end).

This operation is O(1).

Prior to 1.20.0, these indexing operations were still supported by direct implementation of Index and IndexMut.

Panics

Panics if begin or end does not point to the starting byte offset of a character (as defined by is_char_boundary), if begin > end, or if end > len.

Examples

let s = "Löwe 老虎 Léopard";
assert_eq!(&s[0 .. 1], "L");

assert_eq!(&s[1 .. 9], "öwe 老");

// these will panic:
// byte 2 lies within `ö`:
// &s[2 ..3];

// byte 8 lies within `老`
// &s[1 .. 8];

// byte 100 is outside the string
// &s[3 .. 100];

type Output = str

The output type returned by methods.

fn get(self, slice: &str) -> Option<&Self::Output>

🔬This is a nightly-only experimental API. (slice_index_methods)

Returns a shared reference to the output at this location, if in bounds.

fn get_mut(self, slice: &mut str) -> Option<&mut Self::Output>

🔬This is a nightly-only experimental API. (slice_index_methods)

Returns a mutable reference to the output at this location, if in bounds.

unsafe fn get_unchecked(self, slice: *const str) -> *const Self::Output

🔬This is a nightly-only experimental API. (slice_index_methods)

Returns a pointer to the output at this location, without performing any bounds checking.

unsafe fn get_unchecked_mut(self, slice: *mut str) -> *mut Self::Output

🔬This is a nightly-only experimental API. (slice_index_methods)

Returns a mutable pointer to the output at this location, without performing any bounds checking.

fn index(self, slice: &str) -> &Self::Output

🔬This is a nightly-only experimental API. (slice_index_methods)

Returns a shared reference to the output at this location, panicking if out of bounds.

fn index_mut(self, slice: &mut str) -> &mut Self::Output

🔬This is a nightly-only experimental API. (slice_index_methods)

Returns a mutable reference to the output at this location, panicking if out of bounds.

impl SliceIndex<str> for RangeFrom<usize>

Implements substring slicing with syntax &self[begin ..] or &mut self[begin ..].

Returns a slice of the given string from the byte range [begin, len). Equivalent to &self[begin .. len] or &mut self[begin .. len].

This operation is O(1).

Prior to 1.20.0, these indexing operations were still supported by direct implementation of Index and IndexMut.

Panics

Panics if begin does not point to the starting byte offset of a character (as defined by is_char_boundary), or if begin > len.

type Output = str

The output type returned by methods.

fn get(self, slice: &str) -> Option<&Self::Output>

🔬This is a nightly-only experimental API. (slice_index_methods)

Returns a shared reference to the output at this location, if in bounds.

fn get_mut(self, slice: &mut str) -> Option<&mut Self::Output>

🔬This is a nightly-only experimental API. (slice_index_methods)

Returns a mutable reference to the output at this location, if in bounds.

unsafe fn get_unchecked(self, slice: *const str) -> *const Self::Output

🔬This is a nightly-only experimental API. (slice_index_methods)

Returns a pointer to the output at this location, without performing any bounds checking.

unsafe fn get_unchecked_mut(self, slice: *mut str) -> *mut Self::Output

🔬This is a nightly-only experimental API. (slice_index_methods)

Returns a mutable pointer to the output at this location, without performing any bounds checking.

fn index(self, slice: &str) -> &Self::Output

🔬This is a nightly-only experimental API. (slice_index_methods)

Returns a shared reference to the output at this location, panicking if out of bounds.

fn index_mut(self, slice: &mut str) -> &mut Self::Output

🔬This is a nightly-only experimental API. (slice_index_methods)

Returns a mutable reference to the output at this location, panicking if out of bounds.

impl SliceIndex<str> for RangeTo<usize>

Implements substring slicing with syntax &self[.. end] or &mut self[.. end].

Returns a slice of the given string from the byte range [0, end). Equivalent to &self[0 .. end] or &mut self[0 .. end].

This operation is O(1).

Prior to 1.20.0, these indexing operations were still supported by direct implementation of Index and IndexMut.

Panics

Panics if end does not point to the starting byte offset of a character (as defined by is_char_boundary), or if end > len.

type Output = str

The output type returned by methods.

fn get(self, slice: &str) -> Option<&Self::Output>

🔬This is a nightly-only experimental API. (slice_index_methods)

Returns a shared reference to the output at this location, if in bounds.

fn get_mut(self, slice: &mut str) -> Option<&mut Self::Output>

🔬This is a nightly-only experimental API. (slice_index_methods)

Returns a mutable reference to the output at this location, if in bounds.

unsafe fn get_unchecked(self, slice: *const str) -> *const Self::Output

🔬This is a nightly-only experimental API. (slice_index_methods)

Returns a pointer to the output at this location, without performing any bounds checking.

unsafe fn get_unchecked_mut(self, slice: *mut str) -> *mut Self::Output

🔬This is a nightly-only experimental API. (slice_index_methods)

Returns a mutable pointer to the output at this location, without performing any bounds checking.

fn index(self, slice: &str) -> &Self::Output

🔬This is a nightly-only experimental API. (slice_index_methods)

Returns a shared reference to the output at this location, panicking if out of bounds.

fn index_mut(self, slice: &mut str) -> &mut Self::Output

🔬This is a nightly-only experimental API. (slice_index_methods)

Returns a mutable reference to the output at this location, panicking if out of bounds.

impl StructuralPartialEq for str