Testcase: unit clarification - Rust By Example
Description: A description

# Testcase: unit clarification

A useful method of unit conversions can be examined by implementing `Add` with a phantom type parameter. The `Add` `trait` is examined below:

    // This construction would impose: `Self + RHS = Output`
    // where RHS defaults to Self if not specified in the implementation.
    pub trait Add<RHS = Self> {
        type Output;

        fn add(self, rhs: RHS) -> Self::Output;
    }

    // `Output` must be `T<U>` so that `T<U> + T<U> = T<U>`.
    impl<U> Add for T<U> {
        type Output = T<U>;
        ...
    }

The whole implementation:

    use std::ops::Add;
    use std::marker::PhantomData;

    /// Create void enumerations to define unit types.
    #[derive(Debug, Clone, Copy)]
    enum Inch {}
    #[derive(Debug, Clone, Copy)]
    enum Mm {}

    /// `Length` is a type with phantom type parameter `Unit`,
    /// and is not generic over the length type (that is `f64`).
    ///
    /// `f64` already implements the `Clone` and `Copy` traits.
    #[derive(Debug, Clone, Copy)]
    struct Length<Unit>(f64, PhantomData<Unit>);

    /// The `Add` trait defines the behavior of the `+` operator.
    impl<Unit> Add for Length<Unit> {
         type Output = Length<Unit>;

        // add() returns a new `Length` struct containing the sum.
        fn add(self, rhs: Length<Unit>) -> Length<Unit> {
            // `+` calls the `Add` implementation for `f64`.
            Length(self.0 + rhs.0, PhantomData)
        }
    }

    fn main() {
        // Specifies `one_foot` to have phantom type parameter `Inch`.
        let one_foot:  Length<Inch> = Length(12.0, PhantomData);
        // `one_meter` has phantom type parameter `Mm`.
        let one_meter: Length<Mm>   = Length(1000.0, PhantomData);

        // `+` calls the `add()` method we implemented for `Length<Unit>`.
        //
        // Since `Length` implements `Copy`, `add()` does not consume
        // `one_foot` and `one_meter` but copies them into `self` and `rhs`.
        let two_feet = one_foot + one_foot;
        let two_meters = one_meter + one_meter;

        // Addition works.
        println!("one foot + one_foot = {:?} in", two_feet.0);
        println!("one meter + one_meter = {:?} mm", two_meters.0);

        // Nonsensical operations fail as they should:
        // Compile-time Error: type mismatch.
        //let one_feter = one_foot + one_meter;
    }

### See also:

Borrowing (`&`), Bounds (`X: Y`), enum, impl & self, Overloading, ref, Traits (`X for Y`), and TupleStructs.