Stack and Heap Example

Creating a String puts fixed-sized metadata on the stack and dynamically sized data, the actual string, on the heap:

fn main() {
    let s1 = String::from("Hello");
}
StackHeaps1ptrHellolen5capacity5
  • Mention that a String is backed by a Vec, so it has a capacity and length and can grow if mutable via reallocation on the heap.

  • If students ask about it, you can mention that the underlying memory is heap allocated using the System Allocator and custom allocators can be implemented using the Allocator API

  • We can inspect the memory layout with unsafe code. However, you should point out that this is rightfully unsafe!

    fn main() {
        let mut s1 = String::from("Hello");
        s1.push(' ');
        s1.push_str("world");
        // DON'T DO THIS AT HOME! For educational purposes only.
        // String provides no guarantees about its layout, so this could lead to
        // undefined behavior.
        unsafe {
            let (ptr, capacity, len): (usize, usize, usize) = std::mem::transmute(s1);
            println!("ptr = {ptr:#x}, len = {len}, capacity = {capacity}");
        }
    }