Generic vec and generic struct cannot clone vec

Hello,

I had a struct that contained a input : Vec<i32> and could clone it with self.input.clone() without any problem.
Now, I cannot clone it with the following struct :

pub struct PermutationIterator<T> {
    /// vec that should permute its elements
    input: Vec<T>,
   // ...
}

Cargo Error :

error[E0599]: no method named `clone` found for type `std::vec::Vec<T>` in the current scope
   --> src\lib.rs:118:37
    |
118 |             return Some( self.input.clone() );
    |                                     ^^^^^
    |
    = note: the method `clone` exists but the following trait bounds were not satisfied:
            `std::vec::Vec<T> : std::clone::Clone`

error[E0599]: no method named `clone` found for type `std::vec::Vec<T>` in the current scope
   --> src\lib.rs:141:39
    |
141 |         let result = Some( self.input.clone() );
    |                                       ^^^^^
    |
    = note: the method `clone` exists but the following trait bounds were not satisfied:
            `std::vec::Vec<T> : std::clone::Clone`

Please advise.

Here is the link to compare the master branch and the branch that implement generics.

  • The master branch is handling i32
  • The Impl_generic branch should handle generic type instead of i32

Here is the full code :

pub struct PermutationIterator<T> {
    /// vec that should permute its elements
    input: Vec<T>,
    /// vec that holds mobility information of each element of the `input`array
    directions: Vec<Mobility>,
    /// internal counter useful to emit the 1st array
    counter: u32,
    /// result to check if some errors happened
    result: Result<(), String>,
    /// maximum expected permutation. The iterator should return none if the maximum is reached
    max: Option<u32>
}

impl<T> PermutationIterator<T> 
    where T: PartialOrd + Ord 
{

    /// Return an instance of an `Iterator` that will provide
    /// each permutation when `next` method is invoked
    pub fn new( input : Vec<T> ) -> PermutationIterator<T> {

        let directions = create_directions( &input );

        let mut iterator = PermutationIterator{ input,
            directions,
            counter: 0, 
            result: Ok(()),
            max: None
        };

        iterator.input.sort();

        iterator
    }

    /// Return `false`if all permutations occurs well
    pub fn has_errors( &self ) -> bool {
        return self.result.is_err();
    }

    /// set the maximum permutation to comput
    /// e
    /// # Example
    ///
    /// ```
    /// use permutation_way::PermutationIterator;
    ///   // input
    ///   let input = vec![1, 2, 3];
    ///   // call
    ///   let mut iterator = PermutationIterator::new( input );
    ///   iterator.set_max( 3 ); 
    ///   // assertions
    ///   assert_eq!( Some( vec![1, 2, 3] ), iterator.next() );
    ///   assert_eq!( Some( vec![1, 3, 2] ), iterator.next() );
    ///   assert_eq!( Some( vec![3, 1, 2] ), iterator.next() );
    ///   assert_eq!( None, iterator.next() );
    ///   assert_eq!( false, iterator.has_errors() );
    /// ```
    pub fn set_max( &mut self, max : u32 ) {
        self.max = Some(max);
    }
}


impl<T> Iterator for PermutationIterator<T>
    where T: PartialOrd
{
    type Item = Vec<T>;

    fn next( &mut self ) -> Option<Self::Item> {

        if self.input.len() == 0{
            return None;
        }


        // check max is reach
        if self.max == Some(self.counter) {
            return None;
        }

        if self.counter == 0 {
            self.counter = self.counter + 1;
            return Some( self.input.clone() );
        } else if self.input.len() == 1 {
            // stop
            return None;
        }


        let largest = find_largest_mobile_element(&self.input, &self.directions);
        let direction = largest.direction;
        let mobile_position = largest.position;

        if direction == NotMobile {
            self.counter = self.counter + 1;
            return None;
        }

        let swap_result = direction.swap( &mut self.input, &mut self.directions, mobile_position );

        if let Err( SwapError(position)) = swap_result {
            self.result = Err(format!("swap permutation error at position {}", position));
            // stop the iterator
            return None;
        }
        let result = Some( self.input.clone() );


        let reset_result = direction.reset( &self.input, &mut self.directions, mobile_position );

        if let Err(SwapError(position)) = reset_result {
            self.result = Err(format!("swap permutation error at position {}", position));
            // stop the iterator
            return None;
        }
        if let Err(ResetError(position)) = reset_result {
            self.result = Err(format!( "reset permutation error at position {}", position));
            // stop the iterator
            return None;
        }



        self.counter = self.counter + 1;
        result


    }
}

To allow cloning the Vec, add a Clone bound on T:

impl<T> Iterator for PermutationIterator<T>
    where T: PartialOrd + Clone

This will make the iterator impl available only if T is Clone.

You should consider writing the iterator so it works with borrowed slices, which wouldn’t require cloning the elements (since you’d have references to them). Unless you expect T to be cheap to clone.