Is there a trait supplying `iter()`?

Question

Is there in Rust a Trait which supplies the iter() method? I only found the trait IntoIterator, which supplies into_iter().

Just to

Answer 1

No, there is no trait that provides iter().

However, IntoIterator is implemented on references to some containers. For example, Vec, &Vec and &mut Vec are three separate types that implement IntoIterator, and you'll notice that they all map to different iterators. In fact, Vec::iter() and Vec::iter_mut() are just convenience methods equivalent to &Vec::into_iter() and &mut Vec::into_iter() respectively.

fn foo(_x: std::slice::Iter) {}

fn main() {
    let v = vec![1, 2, 3];
    foo(v.iter());
    foo((&v).into_iter()); // iter() exists because this is awkward
}

If you want to write a function that is generic over containers that can be converted into an iterator that iterates over references, you can do so like this:

fn foo<'a, I: IntoIterator>(_x: I) {}

fn main() {
    let v = vec![1, 2, 3];
    foo(&v);
}