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| 1 | +A lifetime of a returned value does not outlive the function call. |
| 2 | + |
| 3 | +Erroneous code example: |
| 4 | + |
| 5 | +```compile_fail,E0482 |
| 6 | +fn prefix<'a>( |
| 7 | + words: impl Iterator<Item = &'a str> |
| 8 | +) -> impl Iterator<Item = String> { // error! |
| 9 | + words.map(|v| format!("foo-{}", v)) |
| 10 | +} |
| 11 | +``` |
| 12 | + |
| 13 | +To fix this error, make the lifetime of the returned value explicit: |
| 14 | + |
| 15 | +``` |
| 16 | +fn prefix<'a>( |
| 17 | + words: impl Iterator<Item = &'a str> + 'a |
| 18 | +) -> impl Iterator<Item = String> + 'a { // ok! |
| 19 | + words.map(|v| format!("foo-{}", v)) |
| 20 | +} |
| 21 | +``` |
| 22 | + |
| 23 | +The [`impl Trait`] feature in this example uses an implicit `'static` lifetime |
| 24 | +restriction in the returned type. However the type implementing the `Iterator` |
| 25 | +passed to the function lives just as long as `'a`, which is not long enough. |
| 26 | + |
| 27 | +The solution involves adding lifetime bound to both function argument and |
| 28 | +the return value to make sure that the values inside the iterator |
| 29 | +are not dropped when the function goes out of the scope. |
| 30 | + |
| 31 | +An alternative solution would be to guarantee that the `Item` references |
| 32 | +in the iterator are alive for the whole lifetime of the program. |
| 33 | + |
| 34 | +``` |
| 35 | +fn prefix( |
| 36 | + words: impl Iterator<Item = &'static str> |
| 37 | +) -> impl Iterator<Item = String> { // ok! |
| 38 | + words.map(|v| format!("foo-{}", v)) |
| 39 | +} |
| 40 | +``` |
| 41 | + |
| 42 | +A similar lifetime problem might arise when returning closures: |
| 43 | + |
| 44 | +```compile_fail,E0482 |
| 45 | +fn foo( |
| 46 | + x: &mut Vec<i32> |
| 47 | +) -> impl FnMut(&mut Vec<i32>) -> &[i32] { // error! |
| 48 | + |y| { |
| 49 | + y.append(x); |
| 50 | + y |
| 51 | + } |
| 52 | +} |
| 53 | +``` |
| 54 | + |
| 55 | +Analogically, a solution here is to use explicit return lifetime |
| 56 | +and move the ownership of the variable to the closure. |
| 57 | + |
| 58 | +``` |
| 59 | +fn foo<'a>( |
| 60 | + x: &'a mut Vec<i32> |
| 61 | +) -> impl FnMut(&mut Vec<i32>) -> &[i32] + 'a { // ok! |
| 62 | + move |y| { |
| 63 | + y.append(x); |
| 64 | + y |
| 65 | + } |
| 66 | +} |
| 67 | +``` |
| 68 | + |
| 69 | +To better understand the lifetime treatment in the [`impl Trait`], |
| 70 | +please see the [RFC 1951]. |
| 71 | + |
| 72 | +[`impl Trait`]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/reference/types/impl-trait.html |
| 73 | +[RFC 1951]: https://rust-lang.github.io/rfcs/1951-expand-impl-trait.html |
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