Chapter 10.3 example incorrectly describes target type or is incoherent

[NathanielAJohnson]

fn main() {
    let string1 = String::from("abcd");
    let string2 = "xyz";

    let result = longest(string1.as_str(), string2);
    println!("The longest string is {}", result);
}

Listing 10-20: A main function that calls the longest function to find the longer of two string slices

Note that we want the function to take string slices, which are references, because we don’t want the longest function to take ownership of its parameters. We want to allow the function to accept slices of a String (the type stored in the variable string1) as well as string literals (which is what variable string2 contains).

The bolded quote should read:

We want to allow the function to accept slices of a String (the type stored in the variable string2)

because string1 is of type String and string2 is of type str& because String Literals Are Slices

[NathanielAJohnson]

I can do a PR to fix this but I need some feedback to ensure that I am correct.

[steveklabnik]

Hey @NathanielAJohnson ! I can see what you're saying here, but the text is correct. That is, it's saying we want a slice of String, and that String is the type of string1. It is true that string2 is a string slice!

I think we could maybe re-word this to be less confusing, though. I wouldn't want to make the change exactly as you've said, but something that points out the two different types, String and &str, like the original text implies.

[NathanielAJohnson]

Yes, maybe something like:

We want to allow the function to accept string slices (the type returned by string1.as_string()) as well as string literals (which is what variable string2 contains)

I think it is also important to note:

Any function expecting a string slice will also accept a string literal.