I'm trying to build a vector of points that are changed while iterating over them:
struct Point {
x: i16,
y: i16,
}
fn main() {
let mut points: Vec<Point> = vec![];
// unsure if point is mutable
points.push(Point { x: 10, y: 10 });
// thus trying it explicitly
let mut p1 = Point { x: 20, y: 20 };
points.push(p1);
for i in points.iter() {
println!("{}", i.x);
i.x = i.x + 10;
}
}
When compiling, I get the error:
error[E0594]: cannot assign to immutable field `i.x`
--> src/main.rs:16:9
|
16 | i.x = i.x + 10;
| ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ cannot mutably borrow immutable field
As I learned here, Rust doesn't allow modifying the structure while iterating over it, thus the error.
How do I modify it in an elegant way? If I read this answer and get it right then the following comes to my mind:
- pop the item from the vector, modify it and push it back.
- create a temporary structure where I push the changed items to and replace original structure with the temporary one outside the loop (how?).
While I think I can get (1) working, I'm not really happy about all this pop's and push's (is this high-performance anyhow?). Concerning (2), I have no idea how to get it working - if this would work at all.
Questions:
- Is (2) an solution and if yes, how would it look like?
- Are there any other solutions?
- What's the advantage or disadvantage of the different solutions, especially with respect to performance?
You cannot modify the structure you are iterating over, that is, the vector
points
. However, modifying the elements that you get from the iterator is completely unproblematic, you just have to opt into mutability:Or, with more modern syntax:
Mutability is opt-in because iterating mutably further restricts what you can do with
points
while iterating. Since mutable aliasing (i.e. two or more pointers to the same memory, at least one of which is&mut
) is prohibited, you can't even read frompoints
while theiter_mut()
iterator is around.