How do I return a Filter iterator from a function?

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Rust 1.26

fn filter_one(input: &[u8]) -> impl Iterator<Item = &u8> {
    input.iter().filter(|&&x| x == 1)
}

fn main() {
    let nums = vec![1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3];
    let other: Vec<_> = filter_one(&nums).collect();
    println!("{:?}", other);
}

Rust 1.0

fn filter_one<'a>(input: &'a [u8]) -> Box<Iterator<Item = &'a u8> + 'a> {
    Box::new(input.iter().filter(|&&x| x == 1))
}

fn main() {
    let nums = vec![1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3];
    let other: Vec<_> = filter_one(&nums).collect();
    println!("{:?}", other);
}

This solution requires additional allocation. We create a boxed trait object. Here, the size of the object is always known (it’s just a pointer or two), but the size of the object in the heap does not need to be known.

As Vladimir Matveev points out, if your predicate logic doesn’t need any information from the environment, you can use a function instead of a closure:

use std::{iter::Filter, slice::Iter};

fn filter_one<'a>(input: &'a [u8]) -> Filter<Iter<u8>, fn(&&u8) -> bool> {
    fn is_one(a: &&u8) -> bool {
        **a == 1
    }

    input.iter().filter(is_one)
}

fn main() {
    let nums = vec![1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3];
    let other: Vec<_> = filter_one(&nums).collect();
    println!("{:?}", other);
}

See also:

  • What is the correct way to return an Iterator (or any other trait)?

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