Merge pull request #186 from matthewjasper/variance

Document variance

Author: alercah

src/SUMMARY.md

@@ -65,7 +65,7 @@
     - [Dynamically Sized Types](dynamically-sized-types.md)
     - [Type layout](type-layout.md)
     - [Interior mutability](interior-mutability.md)
-    - [Subtyping](subtyping.md)
+    - [Subtyping and Variance](subtyping.md)
     - [Type coercions](type-coercions.md)
     - [Destructors](destructors.md)
     - [Lifetime elision](lifetime-elision.md)

src/special-types-and-traits.md

@@ -150,5 +150,5 @@ compiler, not by [implementation items].
 [trait object]: types.html#trait-objects
 [Tuples]: types.html#tuple-types
 [Type parameters]: types.html#type-parameters
-[variance]: ../nomicon/subtyping.html
+[variance]: subtyping.html#variance
 [`!`]: types.html#never-type

src/subtyping.md

@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-# Subtyping
+# Subtyping and Variance
 
 Subtyping is implicit and can occur at any stage in type checking or
 inference. Subtyping in Rust is very restricted and occurs only due to
@@ -15,5 +15,75 @@ fn bar<'a>() {
     let t: &'a str = s;
 }
 ```
-Since `'static` "lives longer" than `'a`, `&'static str` is a subtype of
-`&'a str`.
+
+Since `'static` outlives the lifetime parameter `'a`, `&'static str` is a
+subtype of `&'a str`.
+
+[Higher-ranked]&#32;[function pointers] and [trait objects] have another
+subtype relation. They are subtypes of types that are given by substitutions of
+the higher-ranked lifetimes. Some examples:
+
+```rust
+// Here 'a is substituted for 'static
+let subtype: &(for<'a> fn(&'a i32) -> &'a i32) = &((|x| x) as fn(&_) -> &_);
+let supertype: &(fn(&'static i32) -> &'static i32) = subtype;
+
+// This works similarly for trait objects
+let subtype: &(for<'a> Fn(&'a i32) -> &'a i32) = &|x| x;
+let supertype: &(Fn(&'static i32) -> &'static i32) = subtype;
+
+// We can also substitute one higher-ranked lifetime for another
+let subtype: &(for<'a, 'b> fn(&'a i32, &'b i32))= &((|x, y| {}) as fn(&_, &_));
+let supertype: &for<'c> fn(&'c i32, &'c i32) = subtype;
+```
+
+## Variance
+
+Variance is a property that generic types have with respect to their arguments.
+A generic type's *variance* in a parameter is how the subtyping of the
+parameter affects the subtyping of the type.
+
+* `F<T>` is *covariant* over `T` if `T` being a subtype of `U` implies that
+  `F<T>` is a subtype of `F<U>` (subtyping "passes through")
+* `F<T>` is *contravariant* over `T` if `T` being a subtype of `U` implies that
+  `F<U>` is a subtype of `F<T>`
+* `F<T>` is *invariant* over `T` otherwise (no subtyping relation can be
+  derived)
+
+Variance of types is automatically determined as follows
+
+| Type                          | Variance in `'a`  | Variance in `T`   |
+|-------------------------------|-------------------|-------------------|
+| `&'a T`                       | covariant         | covariant         |
+| `&'a mut T`                   | covariant         | invariant         |
+| `*const T`                    |                   | covariant         |
+| `*mut T`                      |                   | invariant         |
+| `[T]` and `[T; n]`            |                   | covariant         |
+| `fn() -> T`                   |                   | covariant         |
+| `fn(T) -> ()`                 |                   | contravariant     |
+| `std::cell::UnsafeCell<T>`    |                   | invariant         |
+| `std::marker::PhantomData<T>` |                   | covariant         |
+| `Trait<T> + 'a`               | covariant         | invariant         |
+
+The variance of other `struct`, `enum`, `union` and tuple types is decided by
+looking at the variance of the types of their fields. If the parameter is used
+in positions with different variances then the parameter is invariant. For
+example the following struct is covariant in `'a` and `T` and invariant in `'b`
+and `U`.
+
+```rust
+use std::cell::UnsafeCell;
+struct Variance<'a, 'b, T, U: 'a> {
+    x: &'a U,               // This makes `Variance` covariant in 'a, and would
+                            // make it covariant in U, but U is used later
+    y: *const T,            // Covariant in T
+    z: UnsafeCell<&'b f64>, // Invariant in 'b
+    w: *mut U,              // Invariant in U, makes the whole struct invariant
+}
+```
+
+[coercions]: type-coercions.html
+[function pointers]: types.html#function-pointer-types
+[Higher-ranked]: ../nomicon/hrtb.html
+[lifetime bound]: types.html#trait-object-lifetime-bounds
+[trait objects]: types.html#trait-objects