How do I iterate over a range with a custom step?

Question

How can I iterate over a range in Rust with a step other than 1? I'm coming from a C++ background so I'd like to do something like

for(auto i = 0; i <= n; i+=2) {
    //...
}

In Rust I need to use the range function, and it doesn't seem like there is a third argument available for having a custom step. How can I accomplish this?

Answer 1

range_step_inclusive and range_step are long gone.

As of Rust 1.28, Iterator::step_by is stable:

fn main() {
    for x in (1..10).step_by(2) {
        println!("{}", x);
    }
}

Answer 2

It seems to me that until the .step_by method is made stable, one can easily accomplish what you want with an Iterator (which is what Ranges really are anyway):

struct SimpleStepRange(isize, isize, isize);  // start, end, and step

impl Iterator for SimpleStepRange {
    type Item = isize;

    #[inline]
    fn next(&mut self) -> Option<isize> {
        if self.0 < self.1 {
            let v = self.0;
            self.0 = v + self.2;
            Some(v)
        } else {
            None
        }
    }
}

fn main() {
    for i in SimpleStepRange(0, 10, 2) {
        println!("{}", i);
    }
}

If one needs to iterate multiple ranges of different types, the code can be made generic as follows:

use std::ops::Add;

struct StepRange<T>(T, T, T)
    where for<'a> &'a T: Add<&'a T, Output = T>,
          T: PartialOrd,
          T: Clone;

impl<T> Iterator for StepRange<T>
    where for<'a> &'a T: Add<&'a T, Output = T>,
          T: PartialOrd,
          T: Clone
{
    type Item = T;

    #[inline]
    fn next(&mut self) -> Option<T> {
        if self.0 < self.1 {
            let v = self.0.clone();
            self.0 = &v + &self.2;
            Some(v)
        } else {
            None
        }
    }
}

fn main() {
    for i in StepRange(0u64, 10u64, 2u64) {
        println!("{}", i);
    }
}

I'll leave it to you to eliminate the upper bounds check to create an open ended structure if an infinite loop is required...

Advantages of this approach is that is works with for sugaring and will continue to work even when unstable features become usable; also, unlike the de-sugared approach using the standard Ranges, it doesn't lose efficiency by multiple .next() calls. Disadvantages are that it takes a few lines of code to set up the iterator so may only be worth it for code that has a lot of loops.

Answer 3

You'd write your C++ code:

for (auto i = 0; i <= n; i += 2) {
    //...
}

...in Rust like so:

let mut i = 0;
while i <= n {
    // ...
    i += 2;
}

I think the Rust version is more readable too.

Answer 4

Use the num crate with range_step

Answer 5

If you are stepping by something predefined, and small like 2, you may wish to use the iterator to step manually. e.g.:

let mut iter = 1..10;
loop {
    match iter.next() {
        Some(x) => {
            println!("{}", x);
        },
        None => break,
    }
    iter.next();
}

You could even use this to step by an arbitrary amount (although this is definitely getting longer and harder to digest):

let mut iter = 1..10;
let step = 4;
loop {
    match iter.next() {
        Some(x) => {
            println!("{}", x);
        },
        None => break,
    }
    for _ in 0..step-1 {
        iter.next();
    }
}