trait Actor{
fn actor(&self);
}
trait Health{
fn health(&self);
}
struct Plant;
impl Actor for Plant{
fn actor(&self){
println!("Plant Actor");
}
}
struct Monster{
health: f32
}
impl Actor for Monster{
fn actor(&self){
println!("Monster Actor");
}
}
impl Health for Monster{
fn health(&self){
println!("Health: {}",self.health);
}
}
fn main() {
let plant = Box::new(Plant);
let monster = Box::new(Monster{health: 100f32});
let mut actors : Vec<Box<Actor>> = Vec::new();
actors.push(plant);
actors.push(monster);
for a in &actors{
a.actor();
/* Would this be possible?
let health = a.get_trait_object::<Health>();
match health{
Some(h) => {h.health();},
None => {println!("Has no Health trait");}
}
*/
}
}
I am wondering if something like this could be possible?
let health = a.get_trait_object::<Health>();
match health{
Some(h) => {h.health();},
None => {println!("Has no Health trait");}
}
As of 1.0, no. Rust doesn't provide any dynamic downcasting support, with the exception of Any
; however, that only allows you to downcast to a value's specific concrete type, not to arbitrary traits that said concrete type implements.
I believe you could implement such casting manually, but that would require unsafe code that would be easy to get wrong; not the sort of thing I want to try and summarise in an SO answer.
It is not possible to do this in Rust at present, nor is it likely to ever become possible; it is, however, possible to construct similar abstractions as part of your trait:
trait Actor {
fn health(&self) -> Option<&Health>;
}
trait Health { }
impl Actor for Monster {
fn health(&self) -> Option<&Health> { Some(self) }
}
impl Health for Monster { }
impl Actor for Plant {
fn health(&self) -> Option<&Health> { None }
}
Rust is expected to get negative bounds at some point; when that comes, you’ll be able to have something like this:
trait MaybeImplements<Trait: ?Sized> {
fn as_trait_ref(&self) -> Option<&Trait>;
}
macro_rules! impl_maybe_implements {
($trait_:ident) => {
impl<T: $trait_> MaybeImplements<$trait_> for T {
fn as_trait_ref(&self) -> Option<&$trait_> {
Some(self)
}
}
impl<T: !$trait_> MaybeImplements<$trait_> for T {
fn as_trait_ref(&self) -> Option<&$trait_> {
None
}
}
}
}
impl_maybe_implements!(Health);
trait Actor: MaybeImplements<Health> {
}
let health: Option<&Health> = actor.as_trait_ref();
This will reduce the boilerplate from every implementation of a trait to just one per trait, but that stage is not yet upon us. Still, you could take the middle ground of the two approaches:
trait MaybeImplements<Trait: ?Sized> {
fn as_trait_ref(&self) -> Option<&Trait>;
}
macro_rules! register_impl {
($trait_:ident for $ty:ty) => {
impl MaybeImplements<$trait_> for $ty {
fn as_trait_ref(&self) -> Option<$trait_> {
Some(self)
}
}
}
(!$trait_:ident for $ty:ty) => {
impl MaybeImplements<$trait_> for $ty {
fn as_trait_ref(&self) -> Option<$trait_> {
None
}
}
}
}
register_impl!(Health for Monster);
register_impl!(!Health for Plant);
Play around with different ways of handling it until you find something you like! The possibilities are limitless! (Because Rust is Turing‐complete.)