Functions

A Rust version of the famous FizzBuzz interview question:

fn main() {
    fizzbuzz_to(20);   // Defined below, no forward declaration needed
}

fn is_divisible_by(lhs: u32, rhs: u32) -> bool {
    if rhs == 0 {
        return false;  // Corner case, early return
    }
    lhs % rhs == 0     // The last expression in a block is the return value
}

fn fizzbuzz(n: u32) -> () {  // No return value means returning the unit type `()`
    match (is_divisible_by(n, 3), is_divisible_by(n, 5)) {
        (true,  true)  => println!("fizzbuzz"),
        (true,  false) => println!("fizz"),
        (false, true)  => println!("buzz"),
        (false, false) => println!("{n}"),
    }
}

fn fizzbuzz_to(n: u32) {  // `-> ()` is normally omitted
    for i in 1..=n {
        fizzbuzz(i);
    }
}
  • We refer in main to a function written below. Neither forward declarations nor headers are necessary.

  • Declaration parameters are followed by a type (the reverse of some programming languages), then a return type.

  • The last expression in a function body (or any block) becomes the return value. Simply omit the ; at the end of the expression.

  • Some functions have no return value, and return the ‘unit type’, (). The compiler will infer this if the -> () return type is omitted.

  • The range expression in the for loop in fizzbuzz_to() contains =n, which causes it to include the upper bound.

  • The match expression in fizzbuzz() is doing a lot of work. It is expanded below to show what is happening.

    (Type annotations added for clarity, but they can be elided.)

    let by_3: bool = is_divisible_by(n, 3);
    let by_5: bool = is_divisible_by(n, 5);
    let by_35: (bool, bool) = (by_3, by_5);
    match by_35 {
      // ...