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## Method Syntax

*Methods* are similar to functions: they’re declared with the `fn` keyword and
their name, they can have parameters and a return value, and they contain some
code that is run when they’re called from somewhere else. However, methods are
different from functions in that they’re defined within the context of a struct
(or an enum or a trait object, which we cover in Chapters 6 and 17,
respectively), and their first parameter is always `self`, which represents the
instance of the struct the method is being called on.

### Defining Methods

Let’s change the `area` function that has a `Rectangle` instance as a parameter
and instead make an `area` method defined on the `Rectangle` struct, as shown
in Listing 5-13.

<span class="filename">Filename: src/main.rs</span>

```rust
{{#rustdoc_include ../listings/ch05-using-structs-to-structure-related-data/listing-05-13/src/main.rs}}
```

<span class="caption">Listing 5-13: Defining an `area` method on the
`Rectangle` struct</span>

To define the function within the context of `Rectangle`, we start an `impl`
(implementation) block for `Rectangle`. Everything within this `impl` block
will be associated with the `Rectangle` type. Then we move the `area` function
within the `impl` curly brackets and change the first (and in this case, only)
parameter to be `self` in the signature and everywhere within the body. In
`main`, where we called the `area` function and passed `rect1` as an argument,
we can instead use *method syntax* to call the `area` method on our `Rectangle`
instance. The method syntax goes after an instance: we add a dot followed by
the method name, parentheses, and any arguments.

In the signature for `area`, we use `&self` instead of `rectangle: &Rectangle`.
The `&self` is actually short for `self: &Self`. Within an `impl` block, the
type `Self` is an alias for the type that the `impl` block is for. Methods must
have a parameter named `self` of type `Self` for their first parameter, so Rust
lets you abbreviate this with only the name `self` in the first parameter spot.
Note that we still need to use the `&` in front of the `self` shorthand to
indicate this method borrows the `Self` instance, just as we did in `rectangle:
&Rectangle`. Methods can take ownership of `self`, borrow `self` immutably as
we’ve done here, or borrow `self` mutably, just as they can any other parameter.

We’ve chosen `&self` here for the same reason we used `&Rectangle` in the
function version: we don’t want to take ownership, and we just want to read the
data in the struct, not write to it. If we wanted to change the instance that
we’ve called the method on as part of what the method does, we’d use `&mut
self` as the first parameter. Having a method that takes ownership of the
instance by using just `self` as the first parameter is rare; this technique is
usually used when the method transforms `self` into something else and you want
to prevent the caller from using the original instance after the transformation.

The main benefit of using methods instead of functions, in addition to using
method syntax and not having to repeat the type of `self` in every method’s
signature, is for organization. We’ve put all the things we can do with an
instance of a type in one `impl` block rather than making future users of our
code search for capabilities of `Rectangle` in various places in the library we
provide.

Note that we can choose to give a method the same name as one of the struct’s
fields. For example, we can define a method on `Rectangle` also named `width`:

<span class="filename">Filename: src/main.rs</span>

```rust
{{#rustdoc_include ../listings/ch05-using-structs-to-structure-related-data/no-listing-06-method-field-interaction/src/main.rs:here}}
```

Here, we’re choosing to make the behavior of the `width` method be that it
returns `true` if the value in the instance’s `width` field is greater than 0,
and `false` if the value is 0: we can use a field within a method of the same
name for any purpose. In `main`, when we follow `rect1.width` with parentheses,
Rust knows we mean the method `width`. When we don’t use parentheses, Rust
knows we mean the field `width`.

Often, but not always, methods with the same name as a field will be defined to
only return the value in the field and do nothing else. Methods like this are
called *getters*, and Rust does not implement them automatically for struct
fields as some other languages do. Getters are useful because you can make the
field private but the method public and thus enable read-only access to that
field as part of the type’s public API. We will be discussing what public and
private are and how to designate a field or method as public or private in
Chapter 7.

> ### Where’s the `->` Operator?
>
> In C and C++, two different operators are used for calling methods: you use
> `.` if you’re calling a method on the object directly and `->` if you’re
> calling the method on a pointer to the object and need to dereference the
> pointer first. In other words, if `object` is a pointer,
> `object->something()` is similar to `(*object).something()`.
>
> Rust doesn’t have an equivalent to the `->` operator; instead, Rust has a
> feature called *automatic referencing and dereferencing*. Calling methods is
> one of the few places in Rust that has this behavior.
>
> Here’s how it works: when you call a method with `object.something()`, Rust
> automatically adds in `&`, `&mut`, or `*` so `object` matches the signature of
> the method. In other words, the following are the same:
>
> <!-- CAN'T EXTRACT SEE BUG https://github.com/rust-lang/mdBook/issues/1127 -->
> ```rust
> # #[derive(Debug,Copy,Clone)]
> # struct Point {
> #     x: f64,
> #     y: f64,
> # }
> #
> # impl Point {
> #    fn distance(&self, other: &Point) -> f64 {
> #        let x_squared = f64::powi(other.x - self.x, 2);
> #        let y_squared = f64::powi(other.y - self.y, 2);
> #
> #        f64::sqrt(x_squared + y_squared)
> #    }
> # }
> # let p1 = Point { x: 0.0, y: 0.0 };
> # let p2 = Point { x: 5.0, y: 6.5 };
> p1.distance(&p2);
> (&p1).distance(&p2);
> ```
>
> The first one looks much cleaner. This automatic referencing behavior works
> because methods have a clear receiver—the type of `self`. Given the receiver
> and name of a method, Rust can figure out definitively whether the method is
> reading (`&self`), mutating (`&mut self`), or consuming (`self`). The fact
> that Rust makes borrowing implicit for method receivers is a big part of
> making ownership ergonomic in practice.

### Methods with More Parameters

Let’s practice using methods by implementing a second method on the `Rectangle`
struct. This time, we want an instance of `Rectangle` to take another instance
of `Rectangle` and return `true` if the second `Rectangle` can fit completely
within `self`; otherwise it should return `false`. That is, we want to be able
to write the program shown in Listing 5-14, once we’ve defined the `can_hold`
method.

<span class="filename">Filename: src/main.rs</span>

```rust,ignore
{{#rustdoc_include ../listings/ch05-using-structs-to-structure-related-data/listing-05-14/src/main.rs}}
```

<span class="caption">Listing 5-14: Using the as-yet-unwritten `can_hold`
method</span>

And the expected output would look like the following, because both dimensions
of `rect2` are smaller than the dimensions of `rect1` but `rect3` is wider than
`rect1`:

```text
Can rect1 hold rect2? true
Can rect1 hold rect3? false
```

We know we want to define a method, so it will be within the `impl Rectangle`
block. The method name will be `can_hold`, and it will take an immutable borrow
of another `Rectangle` as a parameter. We can tell what the type of the
parameter will be by looking at the code that calls the method:
`rect1.can_hold(&rect2)` passes in `&rect2`, which is an immutable borrow to
`rect2`, an instance of `Rectangle`. This makes sense because we only need to
read `rect2` (rather than write, which would mean we’d need a mutable borrow),
and we want `main` to retain ownership of `rect2` so we can use it again after
calling the `can_hold` method. The return value of `can_hold` will be a
Boolean, and the implementation will check whether the width and height of
`self` are both greater than the width and height of the other `Rectangle`,
respectively. Let’s add the new `can_hold` method to the `impl` block from
Listing 5-13, shown in Listing 5-15.

<span class="filename">Filename: src/main.rs</span>

```rust
{{#rustdoc_include ../listings/ch05-using-structs-to-structure-related-data/listing-05-15/src/main.rs:here}}
```

<span class="caption">Listing 5-15: Implementing the `can_hold` method on
`Rectangle` that takes another `Rectangle` instance as a parameter</span>

When we run this code with the `main` function in Listing 5-14, we’ll get our
desired output. Methods can take multiple parameters that we add to the
signature after the `self` parameter, and those parameters work just like
parameters in functions.

### Associated Functions

All functions defined within an `impl` block are called *associated functions*
because they’re associated with the type named after the `impl`. We can define
associated functions that don’t have `self` as their first parameter (and thus
are not methods) because they don’t need an instance of the type to work with.
We’ve already used one function like this, the `String::from` function, that’s
defined on the `String` type.

Associated functions that aren’t methods are often used for constructors that
will return a new instance of the struct. For example, we could provide an
associated function that would have one dimension parameter and use that as
both width and height, thus making it easier to create a square `Rectangle`
rather than having to specify the same value twice:

<span class="filename">Filename: src/main.rs</span>

```rust
{{#rustdoc_include ../listings/ch05-using-structs-to-structure-related-data/no-listing-03-associated-functions/src/main.rs:here}}
```

To call this associated function, we use the `::` syntax with the struct name;
`let sq = Rectangle::square(3);` is an example. This function is namespaced by
the struct: the `::` syntax is used for both associated functions and
namespaces created by modules. We’ll discuss modules in Chapter 7.

### Multiple `impl` Blocks

Each struct is allowed to have multiple `impl` blocks. For example, Listing
5-15 is equivalent to the code shown in Listing 5-16, which has each method
in its own `impl` block.

```rust
{{#rustdoc_include ../listings/ch05-using-structs-to-structure-related-data/listing-05-16/src/main.rs:here}}
```

<span class="caption">Listing 5-16: Rewriting Listing 5-15 using multiple `impl`
blocks</span>

There’s no reason to separate these methods into multiple `impl` blocks here,
but this is valid syntax. We’ll see a case in which multiple `impl` blocks are
useful in Chapter 10, where we discuss generic types and traits.

## Summary

Structs let you create custom types that are meaningful for your domain. By
using structs, you can keep associated pieces of data connected to each other
and name each piece to make your code clear. In `impl` blocks, you can define
functions that are associated with your type, and methods are a kind of
associated function that let you specify the behavior that instances of your
structs have.

But structs aren’t the only way you can create custom types: let’s turn to
Rust’s enum feature to add another tool to your toolbox.