rust-stdlib

Need a collection?
│
├─ Key-value lookup?
│   ├─ Order doesn't matter, fast lookup → HashMap<K, V>
│   ├─ Need sorted iteration / range queries → BTreeMap<K, V>
│   └─ Tiny (<20 entries), linear scan OK → Vec<(K, V)> with .iter().find()
│
├─ Sequence?
│   ├─ Append/pop from end → Vec<T>
│   ├─ Push/pop from both ends → VecDeque<T>
│   ├─ Insert/remove from middle frequently → LinkedList<T> (rare; usually Vec is better)
│   └─ Priority queue / always-min-first → BinaryHeap<T>
│
├─ Set?
│   ├─ Fast membership, no order → HashSet<T>
│   └─ Sorted iteration → BTreeSet<T>
│
└─ No collection needed — use Vec<T>

use std::collections::HashMap;

let mut counts: HashMap<&str, u32> = HashMap::new();
for word in text.split_whitespace() {
    *counts.entry(word).or_insert(0) += 1;   // single hash, no double lookup
}

Need shared/indirected ownership?
│
├─ Single owner, heap-allocated → Box<T>
│
├─ Multiple readers, single thread → Rc<T>
│   └─ Need to mutate through shared ref → Rc<RefCell<T>>
│
├─ Multiple readers, multiple threads → Arc<T>
│   └─ Need to mutate through shared ref → Arc<Mutex<T>> or Arc<RwLock<T>>
│
├─ Need lazy one-time init → OnceLock<T> (sync) or once_cell::Lazy
│
└─ Need interior mutability (no shared ownership)?
    ├─ Copy type, simple → Cell<T>
    ├─ Non-Copy, complex → RefCell<T> (single thread)
    └─ Multi-thread → Mutex<T> or RwLock<T>

Working with text?
│
├─ Function parameter → &str (always)
├─ Owned, mutable, UTF-8 → String
├─ Borrowed, UTF-8, with mixed owned/borrowed → Cow<'a, str>
├─ OS path (Windows/Unix native) → OsString (owned) / OsStr (borrowed)
├─ Filesystem path → PathBuf (owned) / Path (borrowed)
└─ Bytes that might not be UTF-8 → Vec<u8> / &[u8]

use std::cell::{Cell, RefCell, OnceCell};

// Cell: only for Copy types, no borrow checking
let counter = Cell::new(0);
counter.set(counter.get() + 1);

// RefCell: for non-Copy types, runtime borrow check (panics on double borrow)
let cache = RefCell::new(HashMap::new());
cache.borrow_mut().insert("k", 42);

// OnceCell: one-time initialization
static CONFIG: OnceCell<Config> = OnceCell::new();
let cfg = CONFIG.get_or_init(|| Config::load());

// map: transform inner value
name.map(|n| n.to_uppercase())                    // Option<String>

// and_then: chain fallible operations
id.and_then(|i| db.lookup(i))                     // Option<User>

// unwrap_or / unwrap_or_else: provide default
port.unwrap_or(8080)
port.unwrap_or_else(|| env::var("PORT").unwrap_or("8080").parse().unwrap())

// ok_or / ok_or_else: convert Option to Result
user.ok_or(Error::NotFound)?
user.ok_or_else(|| Error::UserMissing(id))?

// filter, is_some, is_some_and
age.filter(|&a| a >= 18)
opt.is_some_and(|x| x > 0)

// transpose: swap Option<Result> → Result<Option>
let x: Result<Option<i32>, _> = Some("5").parse::<i32>().map(Some);

// ? for propagation (prefer over explicit match)
fn load() -> Result<Config, Error> { Ok(parse(file_read()?)?) }

// map_err: convert error type
file_read().map_err(|e| Error::Io(e))?

// map: transform success value
parse(s).map(|n| n * 2)

// and_then: chain fallible
validate(input).and_then(process)

// or_else / or: fallback on error
primary.or_else(|_| fallback())

Read ────┐
         ├─ BufRead (adds buffering, lines())
Write ───┘
Seek (random access)

use std::io::{BufRead, BufReader, Read, Write};
use std::fs::File;

let f = File::open("log.txt")?;          // impl Read
let reader = BufReader::new(f);          // wrap for BufRead
for line in reader.lines() {             // BufRead::lines
    println!("{}", line?);
}

// Borrowed iteration is the default
let v = vec![1, 2, 3];
for x in &v { /* x: &i32 */ }      // .iter()
for x in &mut v { /* x: &mut i32 */ }
for x in v { /* x: i32, v consumed */ }

use std::thread;
use std::time::Duration;

let handle = thread::spawn(|| {
    thread::sleep(Duration::from_millis(500));
    "result"
});
let r = handle.join().unwrap();   // wait, get result

let mut data = vec![1, 2, 3];
thread::scope(|s| {
    s.spawn(|| { data[0] += 1; });
    s.spawn(|| { data[1] += 1; });
});   // all threads joined here; data borrow ends

use std::sync::mpsc;
use std::thread;

let (tx, rx) = mpsc::channel();
thread::spawn(move || {
    tx.send(42).unwrap();
});
println!("{}", rx.recv().unwrap());

use std::time::{Duration, Instant, SystemTime};

let start = Instant::now();
expensive_op();
println!("took {:?}", start.elapsed());   // Duration

let five_secs = Duration::from_secs(5);
let mixed = Duration::new(5, 500_000_000);  // 5.5s

let now = SystemTime::now();
let since_epoch = now.duration_since(SystemTime::UNIX_EPOCH)?;

use std::path::{Path, PathBuf};

let p = Path::new("/usr/bin/foo");
let stem = p.file_stem();      // "foo"
let ext = p.extension();       // "foo" → None; "foo.txt" → "txt"

let joined = PathBuf::from("/usr").join("bin").join("foo");
let parent = p.parent();       // "/usr/bin"

use std::process::Command;

let output = Command::new("ls")
    .arg("-l")
    .arg("/")
    .output()?;          // waits, returns Output
println!("{}", String::from_utf8_lossy(&output.stdout));

// Stream stdin/stdout
use std::process::Stdio;
let mut child = Command::new("cat")
    .stdin(Stdio::piped())
    .stdout(Stdio::piped())
    .spawn()?;