string-types

String types for UTF-8, C, OS, and paths

Rust provides different string types for different kinds of text.

str and String: a Unicode UTF-8 value sequence. A str is slice-like and immutable. A String is owned, mutable, and growable.

CStr and CString: a C-style null-terminated char byte sequence. A CStr is slice-like and immutable. A CString is owned, mutable, and growable.

OsStr and OsString: a platform-specific operating system string. A OsStr is slice-like and immutable. A OsString is owned, mutable, and growable.

Path and PathBuf: a platform-specific file path string. A Path is slice-like and immutable. A PathBuf is owned, mutable, and growable.

Converting between a platform-specific type (OsStr, OsString, Path, PathBuf) and a platform-independent type (str, String) may require lossy conversion, or handling conversion errors.

Examples of string types:

use std::ffi::{CStr, CString};
use std::ffi::{OsStr, OsString};
use std::path::{Path, PathBuf};

let a: &str = "foo";
let b: String = String::from("foo");

let c: &CStr =  CStr::from_bytes_with_nul(b"foo\0")
    .expect("Error in CStr::from_bytes_with_nul");
let d: CString = CString::from_vec_with_nul(b"foo\0".to_vec())
    .expect("Error in CString::from_vec_with_nul");

let e: &OsStr = OsStr::new("foo");
let f: OsString = OsString::from("foo");

let g: &Path = Path::new("foo");
let h: PathBuf = PathBuf::from("foo");