Heterogeneous data with dyn trait
// Copyright 2025 Google LLC
// SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
use std::fmt::Display;
pub struct Lambda;
impl Display for Lambda {
fn fmt(&self, f: &mut std::fmt::Formatter<'_>) -> std::fmt::Result {
write!(f, "λ")
}
}
fn main() {
let heterogeneous: Vec<Box<dyn Display>> = vec![
Box::new(42u32),
Box::new(String::from("Woah")),
Box::new(Lambda),
];
for item in heterogeneous {
// We know "item" implements Display, but we know nothing else!
println!("Display output: {}", item);
}
}
-
dyn Trait, being a dynamic dispatch tool, lets us store heterogeneous data in collections. -
In this example, we’re storing types that all implement
std::fmt::Displayand printing all items in that collection to screen.