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Add a note about Higher-Ranked Trait Bounds in docs on Closures. #33611

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47 changes: 47 additions & 0 deletions src/doc/book/closures.md
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -319,6 +319,53 @@ assert_eq!(3, answer);
Now we take a trait object, a `&Fn`. And we have to make a reference
to our closure when we pass it to `call_with_one`, so we use `&||`.

A quick note about closures that use explicit lifetimes. Sometimes you might have a closure
that takes a reference like so:

```
fn call_with_ref<F>(some_closure:F) -> i32
where F: Fn(&i32) -> i32 {

let mut value = 0;
some_closure(&value)
}
```

Normally you can specify the lifetime of the parameter to our closure. We
could annotate it on the function declaration:

```ignore
fn call_with_ref<'a, F>(some_closure:F) -> i32
where F: Fn(&'a 32) -> i32 {
```

However this presents a problem with in our case. When you specify the explict
lifetime on a function it binds that lifetime to the *entire* scope of the function
instead of just the invocation scope of our closure. This means that the borrow checker
will see a mutable reference in the same lifetime as our immutable reference and fail
to compile.

In order to say that we only need the lifetime to be valid for the invocation scope
of the closure we can use Higher-Ranked Trait Bounds with the `for<...>` syntax:

```ignore
fn call_with_ref<F>(some_closure:F) -> i32
where F: for<'a> Fn(&'a 32) -> i32 {
```

This lets the Rust compiler find the minimum lifetime to invoke our closure and
satisfy the borrow checker's rules. Our function then compiles and excutes as we
expect.

```
fn call_with_ref<F>(some_closure:F) -> i32
where F: for<'a> Fn(&'a i32) -> i32 {

let mut value = 0;
some_closure(&value)
}
```

# Function pointers and closures

A function pointer is kind of like a closure that has no environment. As such,
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