Skip to content
New issue

Have a question about this project? Sign up for a free GitHub account to open an issue and contact its maintainers and the community.

By clicking “Sign up for GitHub”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy statement. We’ll occasionally send you account related emails.

Already on GitHub? Sign in to your account

document guarantee about evaluation of associated consts and const blocks #1497

Merged
merged 1 commit into from
May 25, 2024
Merged
Show file tree
Hide file tree
Changes from all commits
Commits
File filter

Filter by extension

Filter by extension

Conversations
Failed to load comments.
Loading
Jump to
Jump to file
Failed to load files.
Loading
Diff view
Diff view
26 changes: 22 additions & 4 deletions src/expressions/block-expr.md
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -123,13 +123,13 @@ loop {
> _ConstBlockExpression_ :\
>    `const` _BlockExpression_

A *const block* is a variant of a block expression which evaluates at compile-time instead of at runtime.
A *const block* is a variant of a block expression whose body evaluates at compile-time instead of at runtime.

Const blocks allows you to define a constant value without having to define new [constant items], and thus they are also sometimes referred as *inline consts*.
It also supports type inference so there is no need to specify the type, unlike [constant items].

Const blocks have the ability to reference generic parameters in scope, unlike [free][free item] constant items.
They are desugared to associated constant items with generic parameters in scope.
They are desugared to constant items with generic parameters in scope (similar to associated constants, but without a trait or type they are associated with).
For example, this code:

```rust
Expand All @@ -152,8 +152,26 @@ fn foo<T>() -> usize {
}
```

This also means that const blocks are treated similarly to associated constants.
For example, they are not guaranteed to be evaluated when the enclosing function is unused.
If the const block expression is executed at runtime, then the constant is guaranteed to be evaluated, even if its return value is ignored:

```rust
fn foo<T>() -> usize {
// If this code ever gets executed, then the assertion has definitely
// been evaluated at compile-time.
const { assert!(std::mem::size_of::<T>() > 0); }
// Here we can have unsafe code relying on the type being non-zero-sized.
/* ... */
42
}
```

If the const block expression is not executed at runtime, it may or may not be evaluated:
```rust,compile_fail
if false {
// The panic may or may not occur when the program is built.
const { panic!(); }
}
```

## `unsafe` blocks

Expand Down
3 changes: 3 additions & 0 deletions src/expressions/path-expr.md
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -23,10 +23,13 @@ let push_integer = Vec::<i32>::push;
let slice_reverse = <[i32]>::reverse;
```

Evaluation of associated constants is handled the same way as [`const` blocks].

[_PathInExpression_]: ../paths.md#paths-in-expressions
[_QualifiedPathInExpression_]: ../paths.md#qualified-paths
[place expressions]: ../expressions.md#place-expressions-and-value-expressions
[value expressions]: ../expressions.md#place-expressions-and-value-expressions
[path]: ../paths.md
[`static mut`]: ../items/static-items.md#mutable-statics
[`unsafe` block]: block-expr.md#unsafe-blocks
[`const` blocks]: block-expr.md#const-blocks