Crates and Modules

Rust has a specific way of declaring things.

By default, Rust brings only a few types into the scope of every program in the prelude. If a type you want to use is not in the prelude, you have to bring that type into scope explicitly with a use statement.

Hierarchy

The double colon :: is an operator that allows us to namespace this particular from function under the String type.

#![allow(unused)]
fn main() {
String::from("Hey");
}

Crate

A crate may contain a lot of modules. A crate is a folder where, in its root, you have a Cargo.toml file.

You can compare it to package.json in the JavaScript world, although we used to call it a node module. You import it with a single name, the node module name.

Modules

• A module is a file.
• Or a folder with a mod.rs file inside.

In the JavaScript world this is a module, or an ES module. This is when you import a file with a relative path instead of a name.

Functions

Every module exports functions.

Usage

#![allow(unused)]
fn main() {
use std::cmp::min(3, 8); // => 3
use std::cmp::*
}

Types are namespace too

#![allow(unused)]
fn main() {
let x = "rust".len(); // => 4
let x = str::len("rust"); // => 4
}

Prelude

Rust inserts this at the beginning of every module.

#![allow(unused)]
fn main() {
use std::prelude::v1::*;
}

So that, instead of std::vec::Vec::new(), you can use Vec::new().