Borrowing and Dereferencing Operators

Borrowing Operator

Borrowing means to reference the original data binding or to share the data.

References are just like pointers in C.

Two variables are involved in a borrowing relationship when the referenced variable holds a value that the referencing variable borrows. The referencing variable simply points to the memory location of the referenced variable.

The following illustration shows that operand 1 borrows the value of operand 2 using two types of operators:

Types

Borrowing can be of two types:

  • Shared borrowing
  • A piece of data that is shared by single or multiple variables but it cannot be altered
  • Mutable borrowing
  • A piece of data that is shared and altered by a single variable (but the data is inaccessible to other variables at that time)
  • The following table summarizes the function of these two types.
operatoroperationexplanation
Operand1 = & Operand2
shared borrowoperand 1 can read data of another operand 2
Operand1 = & mut Operand2mutable borrowOperand 1 can read and alter data of another operand2

Example

The following example shows a shared borrow and mutable borrow:

  fn main() {
    let x = 10;
    let mut y = 13;
    //immutable reference to a variable
    let a = &x;
    println!("Value of a:{}", a); 
    println!("Value of x:{}", x); // x value remains the same since it is immutably borrowed
    //mutable reference to a variable
    let b = &mut y;
    println!("Value of b:{}", b);
    println!("Value of y:{}", y); // y value is changed since it is mutably borrowed
}

output:-

  Value of a:10
Value of x:10
Value of b:13
Value of y:13

Dereferencing Operator

Once you have a mutable reference to a variable, dereferencing is the term used to refer to changing the value of the referenced variable using its address stored in the referring variable.

The following illustration shows that operand 1 mutably borrows the value of operand 2 using & mut and then operand 1 dereferences the value of operand 2 using the * operator:

Type

The following table shows the dereferencing operator * along with its function .

operatoroperationexplanation
*Operand1 = Operand2
Dereferencing a value
point to the value of a mutable borrow variable and can also

update that variable value

Example

The following example shows how to dereference a variable:

  
fn main() {
    //mutable reference to a variable
    let mut x = 10;
    println!("Value of x:{}", x);
    let a = & mut x;
    println!("Value of a:{}", a);
    //dereference a variable
    *a = 11;
    println!("Value of a:{}", a);
    println!("Value of x:{}", x); // Note that value of x is updated
}

output:

  Value of x:10
Value of a:10
Value of a:11
Value of x:11

Quiz

Test your understanding of borrowing and dereferencing operators in Rust.

--- primaryColor: steelblue secondaryColor: '#e8e8e8' textColor: black shuffleQuestions: false shuffleAnswers: true locale: en --- # A variable can be updated through a dereference operator if it’s a
- [ ] shared borrow - [ ] mutable borrow # What is the output of the following code? ```rust fn main() { let a = &10; let b = &mut 9; *b = 12; println!("Value of a:{}",a); println!("Value of b:{}",b); } ``` - [ ] Value of a:10 Value of b:12 - [ ] Value of a:10 Value of b:9
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Last updated 25 Jan 2024, 05:11 +0530 . history