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Edit ty.md
Makes various edits throughout for formatting, punctuation, and typo fixes. Also makes some edits and re-wording for clarity.
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src/ty.md

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@@ -63,10 +63,10 @@ Here is a summary:
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HIR is built, some basic type inference and type checking is done. During the type inference, we
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figure out what the `ty::Ty` of everything is and we also check if the type of something is
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ambiguous. The `ty::Ty` then, is used for type checking while making sure everything has the
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expected type. The [`astconv` module][astconv], is where the code responsible for converting a
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expected type. The [`astconv` module][astconv] is where the code responsible for converting a
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`rustc_hir::Ty` into a `ty::Ty` is located. This occurs during the type-checking phase,
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but also in other parts of the compiler that want to ask questions like "what argument types does
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this function expect"?.
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this function expect?"
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[astconv]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/nightly/nightly-rustc/rustc_typeck/astconv/index.html
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@@ -79,13 +79,13 @@ They are syntactically two strings: `"u32"` at line N column 20 and `"u32"` at l
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don’t know that they are the same yet. So, in the HIR we treat them as if they are different. Later,
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we determine that they semantically are the same type and that’s the `ty::Ty` we use.
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Consider another example: `fn foo<T>(x: T) -> u32` and suppose that someone invokes `foo::<u32>(0)`.
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Consider another example: `fn foo<T>(x: T) -> u32`. Suppose that someone invokes `foo::<u32>(0)`.
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This means that `T` and `u32` (in this invocation) actually turns out to be the same type, so we
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would eventually end up with the same `ty::Ty` in the end, but we have distinct `rustc_hir::Ty`.
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(This is a bit over-simplified, though, since during type checking, we would check the function
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generically and would still have a `T` distinct from `u32`. Later, when doing code generation,
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we would always be handling "monomorphized" (fully substituted) versions of each function,
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and hence we would know what `T` represents (and specifically that it is `u32`).
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and hence we would know what `T` represents (and specifically that it is `u32`).)
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Here is one more example:
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@@ -107,13 +107,15 @@ or `fn(i32) -> i32` (with type aliases fully expanded).
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## `ty::Ty` implementation
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[`rustc::ty::Ty`][ty_ty] is actually a type alias to [`&TyS`][tys] (more about that later). `TyS`
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(Type Structure) is where the main functionality is located. You can ignore `TyS` struct in general;
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you will basically never access it explicitly. We always pass it by reference using the `Ty` alias.
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[`rustc::ty::Ty`][ty_ty] is actually a type alias to [`&TyS`][tys].
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This type, which is short for "Type Structure", is where the main functionality is located.
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You can ignore `TyS` struct in general; you will basically never access it explicitly.
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We always pass it by reference using the `Ty` alias.
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The only exception is to define inherent methods on types. In particular, `TyS` has a [`kind`][kind]
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field of type [`TyKind`][tykind], which represents the key type information. `TyKind` is a big enum
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which represents different kinds of types (e.g. primitives, references, abstract data types,
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generics, lifetimes, etc). `TyS` also has 2 more fields, `flags` and `outer_exclusive_binder`. They
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with variants to represent many different Rust types
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(e.g. primitives, references, abstract data types, generics, lifetimes, etc).
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`TyS` also has 2 more fields, `flags` and `outer_exclusive_binder`. They
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are convenient hacks for efficiency and summarize information about the type that we may want to
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know, but they don’t come into the picture as much here. Finally, `ty::TyS`s
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are [interned](./memory.md), so that the `ty::Ty` can be a thin pointer-like
@@ -137,14 +139,15 @@ These methods all return a `Ty<'tcx>` – note that the lifetime you get back is
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arena that this `tcx` has access to. Types are always canonicalized and interned (so we never
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allocate exactly the same type twice).
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> NB. Because types are interned, it is possible to compare them for equality efficiently using `==`
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> N.B.
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> Because types are interned, it is possible to compare them for equality efficiently using `==`
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> – however, this is almost never what you want to do unless you happen to be hashing and looking
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> for duplicates. This is because often in Rust there are multiple ways to represent the same type,
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> particularly once inference is involved. If you are going to be testing for type equality, you
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> probably need to start looking into the inference code to do it right.
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You can also find various common types in the `tcx` itself by accessing `tcx.types.bool`,
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`tcx.types.char`, etc (see [`CommonTypes`] for more).
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You can also find various common types in the `tcx` itself by accessing its fields:
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`tcx.types.bool`, `tcx.types.char`, etc. (See [`CommonTypes`] for more.)
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[`CommonTypes`]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/nightly/nightly-rustc/rustc_middle/ty/context/struct.CommonTypes.html
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@@ -172,35 +175,27 @@ types in the compiler.
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There are a lot of related types, and we’ll cover them in time (e.g regions/lifetimes,
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“substitutions”, etc).
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There are a bunch of variants on the `TyKind` enum, which you can see by looking at the rustdocs.
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Here is a sampling:
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[**Algebraic Data Types (ADTs)**][kindadt] An [*algebraic Data Type*][wikiadt] is a `struct`,
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`enum` or `union`. Under the hood, `struct`, `enum` and `union` are actually implemented
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the same way: they are all [`ty::TyKind::Adt`][kindadt]. It’s basically a user defined type.
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We will talk more about these later.
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[**Foreign**][kindforeign] Corresponds to `extern type T`.
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[**Str**][kindstr] Is the type str. When the user writes `&str`, `Str` is the how we represent the
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`str` part of that type.
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[**Slice**][kindslice] Corresponds to `[T]`.
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[**Array**][kindarray] Corresponds to `[T; n]`.
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[**RawPtr**][kindrawptr] Corresponds to `*mut T` or `*const T`
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[**Ref**][kindref] `Ref` stands for safe references, `&'a mut T` or `&'a T`. `Ref` has some
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associated parts, like `Ty<'tcx>` which is the type that the reference references, `Region<'tcx>` is
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the lifetime or region of the reference and `Mutability` if the reference is mutable or not.
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[**Param**][kindparam] Represents a type parameter (e.g. the `T` in `Vec<T>`).
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[**Error**][kinderr] Represents a type error somewhere so that we can print better diagnostics. We
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will discuss this more later.
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[**And Many More**...][kindvars]
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There are many variants on the `TyKind` enum, which you can see by looking at its
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[documentation][tykind]. Here is a sampling:
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- [**Algebraic Data Types (ADTs)**][kindadt] An [*algebraic data type*][wikiadt] is a `struct`,
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`enum` or `union`. Under the hood, `struct`, `enum` and `union` are actually implemented
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the same way: they are all [`ty::TyKind::Adt`][kindadt]. It’s basically a user defined type.
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We will talk more about these later.
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- [**Foreign**][kindforeign] Corresponds to `extern type T`.
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- [**Str**][kindstr] Is the type str. When the user writes `&str`, `Str` is the how we represent the
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`str` part of that type.
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- [**Slice**][kindslice] Corresponds to `[T]`.
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- [**Array**][kindarray] Corresponds to `[T; n]`.
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- [**RawPtr**][kindrawptr] Corresponds to `*mut T` or `*const T`.
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- [**Ref**][kindref] `Ref` stands for safe references, `&'a mut T` or `&'a T`. `Ref` has some
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associated parts, like `Ty<'tcx>` which is the type that the reference references.
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`Region<'tcx>` is the lifetime or region of the reference and `Mutability` if the reference
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is mutable or not.
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- [**Param**][kindparam] Represents a type parameter (e.g. the `T` in `Vec<T>`).
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- [**Error**][kinderr] Represents a type error somewhere so that we can print better diagnostics. We
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will discuss this more later.
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- [**And many more**...][kindvars]
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[wikiadt]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algebraic_data_type
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[kindadt]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/nightly/nightly-rustc/rustc_middle/ty/enum.TyKind.html#variant.Adt
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- The [`AdtDef`][adtdef] references the struct/enum/union but without the values for its type
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parameters. In our example, this is the `MyStruct` part *without* the argument `u32`.
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- Note that in the HIR, structs, enums and unions are represented differently, but in `ty::Ty`,
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they are all represented using `TyKind::Adt`.
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(Note that in the HIR, structs, enums and unions are represented differently, but in `ty::Ty`,
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they are all represented using `TyKind::Adt`.)
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- The [`SubstsRef`][substsref] is an interned list of values that are to be substituted for the
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generic parameters. In our example of `MyStruct<u32>`, we would end up with a list like `[u32]`.
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We’ll dig more into generics and substitutions in a little bit.
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`AdtDef` is more or less a wrapper around `DefId` with lots of useful helper methods. There is
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essentially a one-to-one relationship between `AdtDef` and `DefId`. You can get the `AdtDef` for a
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`DefId` with the [`tcx.adt_def(def_id)` query][adtdefq]. The `AdtDef`s are all interned (as you can
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see `'tcx` lifetime on it).
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`DefId` with the [`tcx.adt_def(def_id)` query][adtdefq]. `AdtDef`s are all interned, as shown
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by the `'tcx` lifetime.
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[adtdefq]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/nightly/nightly-rustc/rustc_middle/ty/struct.TyCtxt.html#method.adt_def
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