Implementing a generic incrementable trait in Rust

Question

I'm trying to understand how to implement a generic trait in Rust.

While I've seen a number of examples, the examples are too tied to a specific use (e.g. genomic mutators) for me to be able to understand at this point in my Rust development.

Instead, here's a simple example based on something fairly universal--incrementing:

trait Incrementable {
    fn post_inc(&mut self) -> Self;
    fn post_inc_by(&mut self, n: usize) -> Self;
}

impl Incrementable for usize {
    fn post_inc(&mut self) -> Self {
        let tmp = *self;
        *self += 1;
        tmp
    }

    //"Overload" for full generalizability
    fn post_inc_by(&mut self, n: usize) -> Self {
        let tmp = *self;
        *self += n;
        tmp
    }
}

fn main() {
    let mut result = 0;
    assert!(result.post_inc() == 0);
    assert!(result == 1);

    assert!(result.post_inc_by(3) == 1);
    assert!(result == 4);
}

The above code works, but is lacking because it isn't generalizable to all numeric types without writing a lot of boilerplate code.

In my attempts to generalize the above code, I've gotten into fights with the type system, borrow checker or been forced down a path of implementing FromPrimitive for every type I want to support in my generic version (effectively putting me back to square one).

Can you help me understand how to implement Incrementable generically, such that post_inc() and post_inc_by() work for at least all integer and float types, ideally without having to write an implementation for each type?

I am hoping the answer will help me see how traits, implementations, types and associated types can work together in a more straightforward use case than I've been able to come across.

I'm on Rust 1.16.0.

Answer 1

@Simon Whitehead's example can easily be adapted for stable Rust:

trait Incrementable: Copy + std::ops::AddAssign<Self> {
    fn one() -> Self;

    fn post_inc(&mut self) -> Self {
        self.post_inc_by(Self::one())
    }

    fn post_inc_by(&mut self, n: Self) -> Self {
        let tmp = *self;
        *self += n;
        tmp
    }
}

impl Incrementable for u8  { fn one() -> Self {1} }
impl Incrementable for u16 { fn one() -> Self {1} }
impl Incrementable for u32 { fn one() -> Self {1} }
impl Incrementable for u64 { fn one() -> Self {1} }
impl Incrementable for i8  { fn one() -> Self {1} }
impl Incrementable for i16 { fn one() -> Self {1} }
impl Incrementable for i32 { fn one() -> Self {1} }
impl Incrementable for i64 { fn one() -> Self {1} }
impl Incrementable for f32 { fn one() -> Self {1.0} }
impl Incrementable for f64 { fn one() -> Self {1.0} }

While you need to do the implementation for each type, each of them is extremely simple.

You can also use a macro to hide repetitive implementations:

macro_rules! impl_Incrementable{
    ($($m:ty),*) => {$( impl Incrementable for $m  { fn one() -> Self { 1 as $m } })*}
}

impl_Incrementable!{u8, u16, u32, u64, i8, i16, i32, i64, f32, f64}