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Vectors, Strings, and &str Slices

It can be rather confusing for a beginner to wrap their head around how these various types relate and how they work together.

To summarize:

  • A String is a data structure that is essentially a wrapped, managed Vec<T>. It represents a list of UTF-8 bytes that are stored on the heap. It is useful for defining typical words and sentences in a mutable fashion and can be modified during the runtime. Recall a String is just a struct, meaning it owns the fields within. In this case, it owns the bytes that you write to it.
  • String literals/slices, or &str, are immutable, predefined slices of UTF-8 bytes that are defined at compile-time, not runtime. They are either stored as 'static, aka part of the executable in static storage, or on the stack. It is also fixed-length.
  • A Vec<T> is a data structure that is more generic in nature, as it allows for any data type to be passed in to form a managed list.

When to use a string slice versus a String?​

Remember, slices are "view-only", immutable references. String should be used when you require a growable, ownable collection of bytes. String is more costly - within most programs, it is not an issue, but in some environments, it may be better to utilize string slices whenever possible.

String slices can also be converted to a String rather easily:


let literal_to_string: String = "Hello".to_string();