Understanding trait concisely

help
#1

Please let me know if this question is duplicated in somewhere else here.

I started learning Rust for a while, and understood what is struct and impl, similar to class and its methods in OOP languages.

Yet, I also often heard about trait, which I do not know, searched online but all I get is the topics assuming people who already knew what trait is, or are written for native English speakers (I'm not).

I think the most I get is from Rust By Example, which my own understanding is:

trait is used to define the methods that can be used for any struct, as an additional methods.

Correct me if I misunderstood the true meaning of using trait, and perhaps explain like I'm five :grin:. I'm very concern of understanding the common things well in Rust. Thank you.

#2

The closest matching description of a trait from OOP world could be interface but which allows implementation and overriding of some (or all) methods within the trait.

trait HasVoice {
    fn speak(&self) {} // No implementation
    fn shout(&self) {
        println!("Base shout!");
    }
}

struct Foo {}
impl HasVoice for Foo {
    // Can reuse shout from the default implementation inside HasVoice
    // Or provide it's own too.

    fn speak(&self) {
        // Need to implement this as the trait does not provide default
        // implementation
        println!("Foo speak!");
    }
}

struct Bar {}
impl HasVoice for Bar {
    // In Bar, we override the default shout() implementation
    fn shout(&self) {
        println!("Custom bar shout!");
    }
    fn speak(&self) {
        println!("Bar speak!");
    }
}

pub fn main() {
    let foo = Foo {};
    foo.speak(); // Foo speak!
    foo.shout(); // Base shout!

    let bar = Bar {};
    bar.speak(); // Bar speak!
    bar.shout(); // Custom bar shout!
}

Traits can also be used as constraints upon generics. For example:

fn bar<T: HasVoice>(speaker: T) {
    ...
}

The compiler will error if the bar() is called with some T which does not impl HasVoice as we have constrained T in the definition (notice: <T: HasVoice>).

3 Likes
#3

Thanks for the explanation. I am more confident on what I understand about trait.

I believe eventually I'll fully understand it and use it in practical ways along the journey.