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Index chosen over IndexMut when coercing index type #72002

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@ramosbugs

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@ramosbugs

We've run into an issue where we have a type that implements both Index<&str> and IndexMut<&str>. Passing an index value of &String causes rustc to choose Index instead of IndexMut, even if a mutable reference is required. If we first call String::as_str and use that as the index, IndexMut is chosen, as expected.

Example repro by @idubrov (see https://play.rust-lang.org/?version=stable&mode=debug&edition=2018&gist=9f0e5d703465d4b87218cac8b1eea608):

struct Indexable;

impl Indexable {
    fn boo(&mut self) {
    }
}

impl std::ops::Index<&str> for Indexable {
    type Output = Indexable;
    
    fn index(&self, field: &str) -> &Indexable {
        self
    }
}

impl std::ops::IndexMut<&str> for Indexable {
    fn index_mut(&mut self, field: &str) -> &mut Indexable {
        self
    }
}

fn main() {
    let mut v = Indexable;
    let field = "hello".to_string();

    // Works    
    v[field.as_str()].boo();
    
    // Doesn't work    
    v[&field].boo();
}

I expected to see this happen: v[&field] should invoke IndexMut on v since boo() expects a mutable reference.

Instead, this happened: v[&field] invoked Index and complained that IndexMut isn't implemented even though it is:

error[E0596]: cannot borrow data in an index of `Indexable` as mutable
  --> src/main.rs:30:5
   |
30 |     v[&field].boo();
   |     ^^^^^^^^^ cannot borrow as mutable
   |
   = help: trait `IndexMut` is required to modify indexed content, but it is not implemented for `Indexable`

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This is reproducible on stable Rust 1.41.0 and 1.43.0 and 1.45.0-nightly (2020-05-06 1836e3b42a5b2f37fd79).

cc: @estebank

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    A-inferenceArea: Type inferenceA-trait-systemArea: Trait systemC-bugCategory: This is a bug.T-compilerRelevant to the compiler team, which will review and decide on the PR/issue.

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