Rust Notes: Closures

Intro

A closure in Rust is an anonymous function. An anonymous function is a function without a name. A closure is defined with parameters between two pipes and expressions between curly braces || {} .

// Closure with a single parameter and single expression.
// Curly braces are optional with a single expression.  
|param| expression;

// Closure with multiple parameters and multiple expressions.
// Curly braces are required for more than 1 expression.
|param_1, param_2| { expression_1 ; expression_2 };

// Assign a closure to the variable `add`. 
let add = |a, b| a + b;

// Call a closure
add(1, 2); // => 3

Unlike functions, closures CAN capture variables from their enclosing scope. By default, closures borrow a reference to variables from their enclosing scope.

let one = "one".to_string();

// Closure that `borrows` a reference to variable from enclosing scope.
let f = || println!("{}", one);

// Borrow a reference to `one`.
f(); // => one

Implement move semantics on a closure, to move the variable ownership to the closure.

let one = "one".to_string();

// Closure that `moves` the captured variables from the enclosing scope into its scope.
let f = move || println!("{}", one);

// Move the value of `one` into the closure.
f(); // => one

// `one` is no longer valid.
println!("{}", one) // => error: value borrowed after move

Considerations

• Type annotations for parameters are optional.
• The paramater types and return type of a closure is inferred by how the closure is used.
• Closures can be assigned to a variable and called like a normal function.
• Closures can be passed around like a variable as an argument to other functions.
• By default, closures borrow a reference to values in their enclosing scope.
• Some types implement the copy trait, so they will be copied into a closure even with move symantics.