Reasoning why I can't change integers mutable reference value?

fn main()
{
    let mut x = 10;

    let a = &mut x;

    a += 20; // Not allowed

    println!("{}", a);
}

Why am I not allowed to add values to a variable

As the compiler says:

cannot use `+=` on type `&mut {integer}`
help: `+=` can be used on '{integer}', you can dereference `a`
*a += 20;

It's because impl AddAssign<i32> for &mut i32 doesn't exist.
And the reason for that is explicitness, more information in this topic.

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Then how come for strings I don't have to use a dereference if I wanted to push_str() some random data?

That is due to reference coercion, where if you try to say x.foo(), then no matter if x: T or x: &T, it will call it. On the other hand this is because of explicitness where we want to explicitly say, the memory location under x must have 20 added to it.

1 Like

Oh ok thanks, that makes sense.

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