erikstmartin/rust-best-practices

Rust Best Practices

Apply these guidelines when writing or reviewing Rust code.

Quick Reference

Borrowing & Ownership

• Prefer &T over .clone() unless ownership transfer is required
• Use &str over String, &[T] over Vec<T> in function parameters
• Small Copy types (≤24 bytes) can be passed by value
• Use Cow<'_, T> when ownership is ambiguous

Error Handling

• Return Result<T, E> for fallible operations; avoid panic! in production
• Never use unwrap()/expect() outside tests
• Use thiserror for library errors, anyhow for binaries only
• Prefer ? operator over match chains for error propagation

Performance

• Always benchmark with --release flag
• Run cargo clippy -- -D clippy::perf for performance hints
• Avoid cloning in loops; use .iter() instead of .into_iter() for Copy types
• Prefer iterators over manual loops; avoid intermediate .collect() calls

Linting

Run regularly: cargo clippy --all-targets --all-features --locked -- -D warnings

Key lints to watch:

• redundant_clone - unnecessary cloning
• large_enum_variant - oversized variants (consider boxing)
• needless_collect - premature collection

Use #[expect(clippy::lint)] over #[allow(...)] with justification comment.

Testing

• Name tests descriptively: process_should_return_error_when_input_empty()
• One assertion per test when possible
• Use doc tests (///) for public API examples
• Consider cargo insta for snapshot testing generated output

Generics & Dispatch

• Prefer generics (static dispatch) for performance-critical code
• Use dyn Trait only when heterogeneous collections are needed
• Box at API boundaries, not internally

Type State Pattern

Encode valid states in the type system to catch invalid operations at compile time:

struct Connection<State> { /* ... */ _state: PhantomData<State> }
struct Disconnected;
struct Connected;

impl Connection<Connected> {
    fn send(&self, data: &[u8]) { /* only connected can send */ }
}

Error Handling Example

use thiserror::Error;

#[derive(Error, Debug)]
pub enum AppError {
    #[error("database error: {0}")]
    Database(#[from] sqlx::Error),
    #[error("not found: {entity} with id {id}")]
    NotFound { entity: &'static str, id: String },
    #[error("validation failed: {0}")]
    Validation(String),
}

pub fn find_user(id: &str) -> Result<User, AppError> {
    let user = db::query_user(id)?;  // ? auto-converts sqlx::Error via #[from]
    user.ok_or_else(|| AppError::NotFound {
        entity: "user",
        id: id.to_string(),
    })
}

#[from] on a variant generates a From<sqlx::Error> impl so ? converts automatically. Use anyhow::Error in main or CLI entry points where you want a catch-all with context chaining (context()/with_context()), and thiserror everywhere you expose errors to callers.

Documentation

• // comments explain why (safety, workarounds, design rationale)
• /// doc comments explain what and how for public APIs
• Every TODO needs a linked issue: // TODO(#42): ...
• Enable #![deny(missing_docs)] for libraries