AsRef and AsMut

AsRef and AsMut: Borrowing Conversions

The AsRef and AsMut traits enable cheap reference-to-reference conversions. Unlike From and Into which transfer ownership, these traits allow you to borrow data as a different type without copying or moving it. This is incredibly useful for writing generic functions that can accept multiple types.

For example, a function that works with paths might want to accept &str, String, Path, or PathBuf. Instead of writing four different functions or forcing callers to convert their data, you can use AsRef<Path> to accept any of these types.

pub trait AsRef<T: ?Sized> {
    fn as_ref(&self) -> &T;
}
 
pub trait AsMut<T: ?Sized> {
    fn as_mut(&mut self) -> &mut T;
}

The ?Sized bound allows these traits to work with dynamically-sized types like str and [T].

Standard Library Examples

 
// String implements AsRef<str>, AsRef<[u8]>,
// and AsRef<Path>
fn print_length<S: AsRef<str>>(s: S) {
    println!("Length: {}", s.as_ref().len());
}
 
print_length("hello");           // &str
print_length(String::from("hi")); // String
 
// Vec<T> implements AsRef<[T]>
fn sum_slice<V: AsRef<[i32]>>(v: V) -> i32 {
    v.as_ref().iter().sum()
}
 
sum_slice(&[1, 2, 3]);           // &[i32]
sum_slice(vec![1, 2, 3]);        // Vec<i32>

Your Task

Implement the following functions and types using AsRef and AsMut:

1. Generic String Length Function

Implement string_length that accepts any type that can be borrowed as a string slice:

pub fn string_length<S: AsRef<str>>(s: S) -> usize

2. Generic Slice Sum Function

Implement slice_sum that sums all elements in anything that can be borrowed as an i32 slice:

pub fn slice_sum<V: AsRef<[i32]>>(
    values: V
) -> i32

3. Generic Contains Function

Implement contains_element that checks if a slice contains a specific element:

pub fn contains_element<V: AsRef<[i32]>>(
    values: V,
    target: i32
) -> bool

4. Double All Elements (AsMut)

Implement double_all that doubles every element in a mutable slice:

pub fn double_all<V: AsMut<[i32]>>(values: &mut V)

5. Custom Text Type with AsRef

Create a Text struct that wraps a String and implements:

  • AsRef<str> - borrow as a string slice
  • AsRef<[u8]> - borrow as a byte slice
  • AsMut<String> - mutable access to the inner string
pub struct Text {
    content: String,
}
 
impl Text {
    pub fn new(s: impl Into<String>) -> Self { ... }
}

6. Generic Print Function

Implement print_as_uppercase that prints any string-like type in uppercase (return the uppercase string, don't actually print):

pub fn print_as_uppercase<S: AsRef<str>>(s: S) -> String

7. Append to Buffer (AsMut)

Implement append_value that appends an i32 to anything that can be mutably borrowed as a Vec<i32>:

pub fn append_value<V: AsMut<Vec<i32>>>(
    buffer: &mut V,
    value: i32
)

8. Path-like Operations

Implement get_extension that extracts a file extension from any path-like type:

pub fn get_extension<P: AsRef<std::path::Path>>(
    path: P
) -> Option<String>

Examples

 
use asref_asmut::*;
 
// String length works with &str and String
assert_eq!(string_length("hello"), 5);
assert_eq!(string_length(String::from("world")), 5);
 
// Slice sum works with arrays, slices, and vectors
assert_eq!(slice_sum(&[1, 2, 3]), 6);
assert_eq!(slice_sum(vec![10, 20]), 30);
 
// Contains element
assert!(contains_element(&[1, 2, 3], 2));
assert!(!contains_element(vec![1, 2, 3], 5));
 
// Double all elements
let mut arr = [1, 2, 3];
double_all(&mut arr);
assert_eq!(arr, [2, 4, 6]);
 
let mut vec = vec![5, 10];
double_all(&mut vec);
assert_eq!(vec, vec![10, 20]);
 
// Text type
let text = Text::new("Hello");
let s: &str = text.as_ref();
assert_eq!(s, "Hello");
 
let bytes: &[u8] = text.as_ref();
assert_eq!(bytes, b"Hello");
 
// Uppercase
assert_eq!(print_as_uppercase("hello"), "HELLO");
assert_eq!(
    print_as_uppercase(String::from("World")),
    "WORLD"
);
 
// Append value
let mut vec = vec![1, 2];
append_value(&mut vec, 3);
assert_eq!(vec, vec![1, 2, 3]);
 
// Path extension
assert_eq!(
    get_extension("file.txt"),
    Some("txt".to_string())
);
assert_eq!(
    get_extension(
        std::path::PathBuf::from("image.png")
    ),
    Some("png".to_string())
);

Hints
Click here to reveal hints
  • Use s.as_ref() to get a reference of the target type from a generic parameter
  • For AsRef<str>, you can call string methods like .len(), .to_uppercase() on the result of .as_ref()
  • For AsMut<[i32]>, use .as_mut() to get a mutable slice, then iterate with .iter_mut()
  • When implementing AsRef for your own type, return a reference to the inner data
  • Vec<T> implements both AsRef<[T]> and AsMut<[T]>
  • String implements AsRef<str>, AsRef<[u8]>, and AsRef<Path>
  • For get_extension, use Path::extension() which returns Option<&OsStr>, then convert to String
  • The ?Sized bound in the trait definition allows working with unsized types like str and [T]