Why does compilation not fail when a member of a m

Question

I am working through examples in Rust by Example.

#[derive(Debug)]
struct Point {
    x: f64,
    y: f64,
}

#[derive(Debug)]
struct Rectangle {
    p1: Point,
    p2: Point,
}

fn main() {
    let mut point: Point = Point { x: 0.3, y: 0.4 };
    println!("point coordinates: ({}, {})", point.x, point.y);

    let rectangle = Rectangle {
        p1: Point { x: 1.0, y: 1.0 },
        p2: point,
    };

    point.x = 0.5; // Why does the compiler not break here,
    println!(" x is {}", point.x); // but it breaks here?

    println!("rectangle is {:?} ", rectangle);
}

I get this error (Rust 1.25.0):

error[E0382]: use of moved value: `point.x`
  --> src/main.rs:23:26
   |
19 |         p2: point,
   |             ----- value moved here
...
23 |     println!(" x is {}", point.x);
   |                          ^^^^^^^ value used here after move
   |
   = note: move occurs because `point` has type `Point`, which does not implement the `Copy` trait

I understand that I gave point to the Rectangle object and that is why I can no longer access it, but why does the compilation fail on the println! and not the assignment on the previous line?

Answer 1

The problem is that the compiler allows partial reinitialization of a struct, but the whole struct is unusable after that. This happens even if the struct contains only a single field, and even if you only try to read the field you just reinitialized.

struct Test {
    f: u32,
}

fn main() {
    let mut t = Test { f: 0 };
    let t1 = t;
    t.f = 1;
    println!("{}", t.f);
}

This is discussed in issue 21232

Answer 2

What really happens

fn main() {
    let mut point: Point = Point { x: 0.3, y: 0.4 };
    println!("point coordinates: ({}, {})", point.x, point.y);

    drop(point);

    {
        let mut point: Point;
        point.x = 0.5;
    }

    println!(" x is {}", point.x);
}

It turns out that it's already known as issue #21232.