Using mem::size_of in declaration of array size

help
1

... seems not possible. Consider the case.

#[repr(packed)]
#[derive(Debug)]
struct EthernetHeader {
    src: [u8; 6],
    dst: [u8; 6],
    ether_type: u16
}

So it's Sized, but let hdr: &[u8; mem::size_of::<EthernetHeader>::()]; fails with

error: array length constant evaluation error: unimplemented constant expression: calling non-local const fn [E0250]
let hdr: &[u8; mem::size_of::<EthernetHeader>()];
               ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
help: run `rustc --explain E0250` to see a detailed explanation

Is there any way to make it work?

My current goal is to create generic function and use something like [u8; mem::size_of::<T>()] inside. In C++ sizeof(T) works in this case, I guess. Another solution to the latest problem that comes to my mind is to add generic integer parameter, manually compute the size and use this parameter instead of mem::size_of::<T>(), like

fn decode<T, N>(hdr: &T) {
    let bytes: [u8; N];
    ...
}

...
decode<EthernetHeader, 14>(hdr);

This seems doable in C++, but I can't find syntax analogue in rust.

Thank you!

2

Neither of those are possible at the moment.

You'll need to either use Vec and dynamic allocation or something like smallvec with a rough guess at how much stack space you want.