Rust HashMap Data Structure

A HashMap is a collection of key-value pairs. HashMaps are a mutual concept in most programming languages. You may often find them under different naming, such as a hash, dictionaries, maps, objects, and associative arrays.

A HashMap contains a key and its corresponding value. In Rust, a hashing function determines how the key and value pairs are allocated in the memory managed.

Let us breakdown how HashMaps work and how to use them in our Rust programs.

HashMap Module

To use a HashMap, we need to import the HashMap module from the Rust standard collections library.

An import statement is provided below:

use std::collections::HashMap;

Once imported, we can use it to work with HashMaps in Rust.

Rust Create HashMap

We can define a new empty HashMap using the new method. An example is provided below:

use std::collections::HashMap;

fn main() {

let mut user_info = HashMap::new();

}

The previous example creates a new empty HashMap that stores user information. To add elements to the HashMap, we can use the insert method as shown in the example below:

use std::collections::HashMap;

fn main() {

let mut user_info = HashMap::new();

user_info.insert("Russell ", "California");

user_info.insert("Donna", "Wyoming");

user_info.insert("Franklin", "Colorado");

user_info.insert("Elise", "Pennysylania");

user_info.insert("Mason", "Virgina");

}

To print the HashMap, we can use the println! method with the debug trait as shown below:

println!("{:?}", user_info);

This should return the complete hash map information as shown below:

{"Mason": "Virgina", "Donna": "Wyoming", "Franklin": "Colorado", "Elise": "Pennysylania", "Russell ": "California"}

Rust Iterate HashMap

We can iterate over a HashMap using the iter method. An example illustration shown below:

for (key, value) in user_info.iter() {

println!("{}: {}", key, value);

}

The iter method will return a set of keys and their corresponding values. An example output is provided below:

Donna: Wyoming

Russell: California

Mason: Virgina

Franklin: Colorado

Elise: Pennysylania

Rust Check If Key Exists

To check if a key exists within a HashMap, you can use the contains_key() method. An example is shown below:

println!("{}", user_info.contains_key("Elise"));

The function takes the key to lookup as an argument and returns a Boolean true if the key exists in the HashMap.

Rust Retrieve Values

You can retrieve the values from a map using the get method. The function takes the key you wish to access as the argument and returns the corresponding value.

An example is provided below:

println!("{:?}", user_info.get("Mason"));

If the specified key exists in the collection, Rust will return the associated value and a None if the key is not found.

Rust Update HashMap

You can update a key-value pair in a HashMap by passing a unique value to an existing key. An example is provided below:

user_info.insert("Mason", "Texas");

println!("{:?}", user_info.get("Mason"));

Since the key “Mason” already exists in the HashMap, Rust automatically substitutes its value with the new one:

Some("Texas");

Rust Remove Key-Value

We can remove a key-value pair from a HashMap using the remove method. The method takes the key we wish to remove as the argument.

An example is provided below:

user_info.remove("Mason");

Conclusion

HashMaps play a critical role in providing diversity and extensibility for your programs. This article provides a guide on using HashMaps in the Rust programming language and its different uses. We hope you found this article helpful. Check the other Linux Hint articles for more tips and information.