this post was submitted on 21 Apr 2024
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Rust
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@larix @Ephera it's better to return an Option<&str> as a String may DeRef to &str.
For example
self.name.as_deref()
Hmm, interesting. The documentation tells me, it creates a new Option value, and allocating memory every time someone just wants to look at a value could be pretty bad.
But I guess, an Option of a reference never needs to allocate memory, because it'll either be a pointer to a value (
Some
) or a pointer to null (None
). Right?Well, that explains why it's technically possible.
As for why
Option<&str>
is preferrable then:It hides away your internals. Your caller should only care whether they can get the value or not (
Some
vs.None
), not what the precise reason is. That reason or your internal structure might change.@larix
Yes, that makes sense too. Great!
I’ve updated the code as recommended.
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