Read a file and get an array of strings

Question

I want to read a file and get back a vector of Strings. The following function works, but is there a more concise or idiomatic way?

use std::fs:         


        

Answer 1

DK.'s answer is quite right and has great explanation. However, you stated:

Read a file and get an array of strings

Rust arrays have a fixed length, known at compile time, so I assume you really mean "vector". I would write it like this:

use std::{
    fs::File,
    io::{prelude::*, BufReader},
    path::Path,
};

fn lines_from_file(filename: impl AsRef) -> Vec {
    let file = File::open(filename).expect("no such file");
    let buf = BufReader::new(file);
    buf.lines()
        .map(|l| l.expect("Could not parse line"))
        .collect()
}

// ---

fn main() {
    let lines = lines_from_file("/etc/hosts");
    for line in lines {
        println!("{:?}", line);
    }
}

1. As in the other answer, it's worth it to use a generic type that implements AsRef for the filename.
2. Result::expect shortens the panic on Err.
3. BufRead::lines handles multiple types of newlines, not just "\n".
4. BufRead::lines also gives you separately allocated Strings, instead of one big glob.
5. There's no reason to collect to a temporary variable just to return it. There's especially no reason to repeat the type (Vec).

If you wanted to return a Result on failure, you can squash the implementation down to one line if you want:

use std::{
    fs::File,
    io::{self, BufRead, BufReader},
    path::Path,
};

fn lines_from_file(filename: impl AsRef) -> io::Result> {
    BufReader::new(File::open(filename)?).lines().collect()
}

// ---

fn main() {
    let lines = lines_from_file("/etc/hosts").expect("Could not load lines");
    for line in lines {
        println!("{:?}", line);
    }
}