Rust Best Practices

Rust Best Practices

Ownership and Borrowing

Prefer Borrowing Over Ownership

// Bad - takes ownership unnecessarily
fn print_name(name: String) {
    println!("{}", name);
}

// Good - borrows immutably
fn print_name(name: &str) {
    println!("{}", name);
}

Use References Appropriately

// Immutable borrow for reading
fn calculate_length(s: &String) -> usize {
    s.len()
}

// Mutable borrow for modification
fn push_char(s: &mut String, c: char) {
    s.push(c);
}

Error Handling

Use Result and Option

fn find_user(id: u32) -> Option<User> {
    users.get(&id).cloned()
}

fn parse_config(path: &str) -> Result<Config, ConfigError> {
    let content = fs::read_to_string(path)?;
    toml::from_str(&content).map_err(ConfigError::Parse)
}

Custom Error Types

use thiserror::Error;

#[derive(Error, Debug)]
pub enum AppError {
    #[error("database error: {0}")]
    Database(#[from] sqlx::Error),

    #[error("not found: {0}")]
    NotFound(String),

    #[error("validation error: {field}")]
    Validation { field: String },
}

Propagate with ?

fn process_file(path: &str) -> Result<Data, Error> {
    let content = fs::read_to_string(path)?;
    let parsed = serde_json::from_str(&content)?;
    let validated = validate(parsed)?;
    Ok(validated)
}

Structs and Enums

Builder Pattern

#[derive(Default)]
pub struct ServerBuilder {
    port: Option<u16>,
    host: Option<String>,
}

impl ServerBuilder {
    pub fn port(mut self, port: u16) -> Self {
        self.port = Some(port);
        self
    }

    pub fn host(mut self, host: impl Into<String>) -> Self {
        self.host = Some(host.into());
        self
    }

    pub fn build(self) -> Result<Server, BuildError> {
        Ok(Server {
            port: self.port.unwrap_or(8080),
            host: self.host.unwrap_or_else(|| "localhost".into()),
        })
    }
}

Newtype Pattern

pub struct UserId(u64);
pub struct Email(String);

impl Email {
    pub fn new(email: String) -> Result<Self, ValidationError> {
        if email.contains('@') {
            Ok(Self(email))
        } else {
            Err(ValidationError::InvalidEmail)
        }
    }
}

Enums for State

enum ConnectionState {
    Disconnected,
    Connecting { attempt: u32 },
    Connected { session_id: String },
    Error { message: String },
}

Traits

Implement Standard Traits

#[derive(Debug, Clone, PartialEq, Eq, Hash)]
pub struct User {
    pub id: u64,
    pub name: String,
}

Trait Objects vs Generics

// Static dispatch (monomorphization)
fn process<T: Handler>(handler: T) { ... }

// Dynamic dispatch (trait object)
fn process(handler: &dyn Handler) { ... }
fn process(handler: Box<dyn Handler>) { ... }

Extension Traits

pub trait StringExt {
    fn truncate_ellipsis(&self, max_len: usize) -> String;
}

impl StringExt for str {
    fn truncate_ellipsis(&self, max_len: usize) -> String {
        if self.len() <= max_len {
            self.to_string()
        } else {
            format!("{}...", &self[..max_len - 3])
        }
    }
}

Lifetimes

Elision Rules

// Lifetimes elided - single input reference
fn first_word(s: &str) -> &str { ... }

// Explicit when multiple inputs
fn longest<'a>(x: &'a str, y: &'a str) -> &'a str { ... }

Struct Lifetimes

struct Parser<'a> {
    input: &'a str,
    position: usize,
}

impl<'a> Parser<'a> {
    fn new(input: &'a str) -> Self {
        Self { input, position: 0 }
    }
}

Async Rust

Tokio Patterns

#[tokio::main]
async fn main() -> Result<(), Box<dyn std::error::Error>> {
    let result = fetch_data().await?;
    Ok(())
}

async fn fetch_data() -> Result<Data, Error> {
    let client = reqwest::Client::new();
    let response = client.get(URL).send().await?;
    response.json().await.map_err(Into::into)
}

Concurrent Operations

use futures::future::join_all;

async fn fetch_all(urls: Vec<String>) -> Vec<Result<Response, Error>> {
    let futures: Vec<_> = urls.into_iter()
        .map(|url| fetch_one(url))
        .collect();

    join_all(futures).await
}

Testing

Unit Tests

#[cfg(test)]
mod tests {
    use super::*;

    #[test]
    fn test_add() {
        assert_eq!(add(2, 2), 4);
    }

    #[test]
    #[should_panic(expected = "division by zero")]
    fn test_divide_by_zero() {
        divide(1, 0);
    }
}

Integration Tests

// tests/integration_test.rs
use mylib::process;

#[test]
fn test_full_workflow() {
    let result = process("input");
    assert!(result.is_ok());
}

Performance

Avoid Unnecessary Allocations

// Bad - allocates new String
fn process(s: &str) -> String {
    s.to_uppercase()
}

// Good when possible - use Cow
use std::borrow::Cow;
fn process(s: &str) -> Cow<str> {
    if s.chars().any(|c| c.is_lowercase()) {
        Cow::Owned(s.to_uppercase())
    } else {
        Cow::Borrowed(s)
    }
}

Use Iterators

// Good - lazy, zero-cost
let sum: i32 = numbers.iter()
    .filter(|n| **n > 0)
    .map(|n| n * 2)
    .sum();

Anti-Patterns to Avoid

• .unwrap() in production code
• Excessive .clone() to "fix" borrow checker
• unsafe without clear justification
• Ignoring compiler warnings
• Not using clippy
• Global mutable state (lazy_static with Mutex)