How I can mutate a struct's field from a method?

Question

I want to do this:

struct Point {     x: i32,     y: i32, }  impl Point {     fn up(&self) {         self.y += 1;     } }  fn main() {     let p = Point { x: 0, y: 0 };     p.up(); } 

But this code throws a compiler error:

error[E0594]: cannot assign to field `self.y` of immutable binding  --> src/main.rs:8:9   | 7 |     fn up(&self) {   |           ----- use `&mut self` here to make mutable 8 |         self.y += 1;   |         ^^^^^^^^^^^ cannot mutably borrow field of immutable binding 

Answer 1

You need to use &mut self instead of &self and make the p variable mutable:

struct Point {     x: i32,     y: i32, }  impl Point {     fn up(&mut self) {         // ^^^ Here         self.y += 1;     } }  fn main() {     let mut p = Point { x: 0, y: 0 };     //  ^^^ And here     p.up(); } 

In Rust, mutability is inherited: the owner of the data decides if the value is mutable or not. References, however, do not imply ownership and hence they can be immutable or mutable themselves. You should read the official book which explains all of these basic concepts.

Answer 2

By using Cell<T> you can emulate field-level mutability:

use std::cell::Cell;  struct Point {     x: i32,     y: Cell<i32>, }  impl Point {     fn up(&self) {         self.y.set(self.y.get() + 1);     } }  fn main() {     let p = Point { x: 0, y: Cell::new(0) };     p.up();     println!("y: {:?}", p.y); } 

This will print y: Cell { value: 7 } and we've successfully updated y.

Additionally, if you are using nightly channel, you can declare #![feature(cell_update)] on top of your .rs file and use the following syntax inside your up() method:

impl Point {     fn up(&self) {         self.y.update(|x| x + 1);     } } 

Note: This feature above is a nightly-only experimental API.

From The Rust Programming Language at Rust 1.7.