How to default-initialize a struct containing an array in Rust?

Question

What is the recommended way to declare a struct that contains an array, and then create a zero-initialized instance?

Here is the struct:

#[derive(Default)]
struct Histogram {
    sum: u32,
    bins: [u32; 256],
}

and the compiler error:

error[E0277]: the trait bound `[u32; 256]: std::default::Default` is not satisfied
 --> src/lib.rs:4:5
  |
4 |     bins: [u32; 256],
  |     ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ the trait `std::default::Default` is not implemented for `[u32; 256]`
  |
  = help: the following implementations were found:
            <[T; 14] as std::default::Default>
            <&'a [T] as std::default::Default>
            <[T; 22] as std::default::Default>
            <[T; 7] as std::default::Default>
          and 31 others
  = note: required by `std::default::Default::default`

If I attempt to add the missing initializer for the array:

impl Default for [u32; 256] {
    fn default() -> [u32; 255] {
        [0; 256]
    }
}

I get:

error[E0117]: only traits defined in the current crate can be implemented for arbitrary types
 --> src/lib.rs:7:5
  |
7 |     impl Default for [u32; 256] {
  |     ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ impl doesn't use types inside crate
  |
  = note: the impl does not reference any types defined in this crate
  = note: define and implement a trait or new type instead

Am I doing something wrong?

Answer 1

Rust does not implement Default for all arrays because it does not have non-type polymorphism. As such, Default is only implemented for a handful of sizes.

You can, however, implement a default for your type:

impl Default for Histogram {
    fn default() -> Histogram {
        Histogram {
            sum: 0,
            bins: [0; 256],
        }
    }
}

Note: I would contend that implementing Default for u32 is fishy to start with; why 0 and not 1? or 42? There is no good answer, so no obvious default really.