How do I use integer number literals when using generic types?

I wanted to implement a function computing the number of digits within any generic type of integer. Here is the code I came up with:

extern crate num;
use num::Integer;

fn int_length<T: Integer>(mut x: T) -> u8 {
    if x == 0 {
        return 1;
    }

    let mut length = 0u8;
    if x < 0 {
        length += 1;
        x = -x;
    }

    while x > 0 {
        x /= 10;
        length += 1;
    }

    length
}

fn main() {
    println!("{}", int_length(45));
    println!("{}", int_length(-45));
}

And here is the compiler output

error[E0308]: mismatched types
 --> src/main.rs:5:13
  |
5 |     if x == 0 {
  |             ^ expected type parameter, found integral variable
  |
  = note: expected type `T`
             found type `{integer}`

error[E0308]: mismatched types
  --> src/main.rs:10:12
   |
10 |     if x < 0 {
   |            ^ expected type parameter, found integral variable
   |
   = note: expected type `T`
              found type `{integer}`

error: cannot apply unary operator `-` to type `T`
  --> src/main.rs:12:13
   |
12 |         x = -x;
   |             ^^

error[E0308]: mismatched types
  --> src/main.rs:15:15
   |
15 |     while x > 0 {
   |               ^ expected type parameter, found integral variable
   |
   = note: expected type `T`
              found type `{integer}`

error[E0368]: binary assignment operation `/=` cannot be applied to type `T`
  --> src/main.rs:16:9
   |
16 |         x /= 10;
   |         ^ cannot use `/=` on type `T`

I understand that the problem comes from my use of constants within the function, but I don't understand why the trait specification as Integer doesn't solve this.

The documentation for Integer says it implements the PartialOrd, etc. traits with Self (which I assume refers to Integer). By using integer constants which also implement the Integer trait, aren't the operations defined, and shouldn't the compiler compile without errors?

I tried suffixing my constants with i32, but the error message is the same, replacing _ with i32.

oli_obk

Many things are going wrong here:

As Shepmaster says, 0 and 1 cannot be converted to everything implementing Integer. Use Zero::zero and One::one instead.
10 can definitely not be converted to anything implementing Integer, you need to use NumCast for that
a /= b is not sugar for a = a / b but an separate trait that Integer does not require.
-x is an unary operation which is not part of Integer but requires the Neg trait (since it only makes sense for signed types).

Here's an implementation. Note that you need a bound on Neg, to make sure that it results in the same type as T

extern crate num;

use num::{Integer, NumCast};
use std::ops::Neg;

fn int_length<T>(mut x: T) -> u8
where
    T: Integer + Neg<Output = T> + NumCast,
{
    if x == T::zero() {
        return 1;
    }

    let mut length = 0;
    if x < T::zero() {
        length += 1;
        x = -x;
    }

    while x > T::zero() {
        x = x / NumCast::from(10).unwrap();
        length += 1;
    }

    length
}

fn main() {
    println!("{}", int_length(45));
    println!("{}", int_length(-45));
}

The problem is that the Integer trait can be implemented by anything. For example, you could choose to implement it on your own struct! There wouldn't be a way to convert the literal 0 or 1 to your struct. I'm too lazy to show an example of implementing it, because there's 10 or so methods. ^_^

This is why Zero::zero and One::one exist. You can (very annoyingly) create all the other constants from repeated calls to those.

You can also use the From and Into traits to convert to your generic type:

extern crate num;

use num::Integer;
use std::ops::{DivAssign, Neg};

fn int_length<T>(mut x: T) -> u8
where
    T: Integer + Neg<Output = T> + DivAssign,
    u8: Into<T>,
{
    let zero = 0.into();
    if x == zero {
        return 1;
    }

    let mut length = 0u8;
    if x < zero {
        length += 1;
        x = -x;
    }

    while x > zero {
        x /= 10.into();
        length += 1;
    }

    length
}

fn main() {
    println!("{}", int_length(45));
    println!("{}", int_length(-45));
}