Ownership and Functions

the assignment of a variable to another variable will copy or move it. In case of passing variables to the functions, similar can happen.

When a variable whose memory is allocated on heap goes out of scope, the value will be cleaned up by drop unless the data has been moved such that it is now being owned by another variable.

Passing Values to a Function

  • The ownership of the variable is
    • Copied if the value is a primitive data type so the variable can be reused after the function call
    • Moved if the value is a non-primitive data type so the value becomes inaccessible after the function call
fn main() {
    let str = String::from("Rust"); // str comes into scope
                                    // str is a move type

    pass_string_object(str);        // str's value moves into the function...
                                    // ... and becomes in accessible here
    //println!("{}" , str);         // This line will give an error

    let my_int = 10;                // my_int comes into scope

    pass_integer(my_int);          // my_int value is a copy into the function,
                                    // but i32 is a copy type, so can my used
                                    // use my_int if desired

} // Here, my_int and then str goes out of scope

fn pass_string_object(my_string: String) { // my_string comes into scope
    println!("{}", my_string);
} // Here, my_string goes out of scope and `drop` frees the memory

fn pass_integer(my_integer: i32) { // my_integer comes into scope
    println!("{}", my_integer);
} // Here, my_integer goes out of scope

output

Rust
10

In this example, value str of type String is moved when passed to the function as an argument and my_int of type i32 is copied.

Return Values from a Function

Returning values from a function transfer the ownership to the caller function.

#[allow(dead_code)]
fn main() {

    let str_1 = move_return_value_str_1();  // gives_ownership to str_1

    println!("The function gives ownership to string by returning a value \nstring 1 :{}",str_1); // print value of str_1

    let str_2 = String::from("Rust Language");     // assigns a string object to str_2

    println!("This is a string declared \nstring 2 :{}",str_2); // print value of str_2

    let str_3 = moves_str_2_return_str_2(str_2);  // str_2 is moved into the function argument
                                            // return value moves to str_3
    println!("string 2 passes to the function and returns its value to string 3 \nstring 3 :{}",str_3); // print value of str_3

} // Here, str_3,str_2,str_1 goes out of scope respectively
 // str_3 dropped
 // str_2 moved
 // str_1 dropped
fn move_return_value_str_1() -> String {     // gives ownership
                                             // value goes to that calls the function
    let my_string = String::from("Rust"); // my_string comes into scope

    my_string                              // my_string is returned
}

fn moves_str_2_return_str_2(my_string: String) -> String { // my_string comes into
                                                      // scope
    my_string  // my_string is returned
}

output

The function gives ownership to string by returning a value
string 1 :Rust
This is a string declared
string 2 :Rust Language
string 2 passes to the function and returns its value to string 3
string 3 :Rust Language

Here, in this example, variable str_1 gains the ownership of a String when the value is returned from the function move_return_value_str_1. Variable str_2 is declared and its value is passed to the function moves_str_2_return_str_2. Upon being returned from the function the value is saved in str_3.

Note:str_2 becomes inaccessible since its value is moved in the function

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