8.4 String literal definitions

String literals are constant data, embedded in the program, and thus stored inside the read-only memory zone.

Strings literals are written between quotes and can be used to initialize string variables:

let s = "abcdef";
s

8.4.1Multi-lines definition¶

We have seen a string literal defined on one line, but it can also be defined on multiple lines (new line characters are included):

let s = "my string
on
multiple
lines.";
s

Using the backslash (\) escape character, we can avoid the new line characters:

let s = "my string \
on \
multiple \
lines.";
s

8.4.2Using escape characters¶

The escape characters we have seen for the char type can be used inside a literal string definition:

println!("my string\n \x3f \u{211d}");

my string

 ? ℝ

The NULL character (character ASCII 0) is not interpreted as a string terminator and is printed as-is:

println!("abc\0def");

abcdef

8.4.3Raw string¶

Using the r prefix we can define a raw string in which escape characters are not interpreted (much like Python’s raw strings):

r"My string with any char\n \x3f.'abc'"

8.4.4Byte string¶

Byte string (slice of bytes (u8)):

let bytes = b"abc"; // Type is &[u8; 3]
bytes