This time we tackle one of the most tricky areas for a new Rust programmer: lifetimes. The key point is that when we add lifetime bounds ('a or similar) to a function signature, this is not to help Rust compile our function: it's to help Rust understand the lifetime of our return values, so that it knows how to compile the code that calls this function. The lifetime bounds tell the compiler about the references we return - specifically, how they relate to the references that were passed in.

Links:

• Exercises: https://artificialworlds.net/presentations/rust-101/exercises/A3-traits-generics/mod.html
• Slides: https://artificialworlds.net/presentations/rust-101/A3-traits-generics/

Rust 101 is a series of videos explaining how to write programs in Rust. The course materials for this series are developed by tweede golf. You can find more information at https://github.com/tweedegolf/101-rs and you can sponsor the work at https://github.com/sponsors/tweedegolf . They are released under the Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike 4.0 International license.

This series of videos is copyright 2024 Andy Balaam and the tweede golf contributors and is released under the Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike 4.0 International license.