rust-lang / rust-lang/rust-clippy
Use `write_str` instead of `write!` or `write_fmt` when format has no args
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- Dominant language
- Rust
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Description
What it does
Despite amazing efforts by @m-ou-se, it seems the generated assembly code for write!(f, "something") is still far more complex (and likely slower) than f.write_str("something"). While eventually I do hope it will get solved, I think Clippy can already help users to improve their code performance by suggesting to switch to write_str where possible.
Advantage
- faster code
- smaller compiled code
Drawbacks
- in some cases may break consistency of only using
write! - some day may become irrelevant (hopefully soon, but I wont bet on it)
Example
use std::fmt;
pub struct Obj(String);
impl fmt::Display for Obj {
fn fmt(&self, f: &mut fmt::Formatter<'_>) -> fmt::Result {
write!(f, "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA")?;
write!(f, "{}", self.0)?;
let s: &str = &self.0;
write!(f, "{s}")
}
}
Could be written as:
fn fmt(&self, f: &mut fmt::Formatter<'_>) -> fmt::Result {
f.write_str("AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA")?;
f.write_str(&self.0)?;
let s: &str = &self.0;
f.write_str(s)
}
Contributor guide
First steps
- Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
- Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
- Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
- Open a pull request that references the issue number.
Research direction
Start by locating Clippy's handling of write! and write_fmt calls and review the linked Rust issue and Compiler Explorer example for the performance motivation. Add coverage for the examples shown, including literal and argument-free formatting, and verify that the lint suggests write_str only when no formatting arguments are needed.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- rust
- Domain
- devtools
- Issue type
- Feature
- Difficulty
- 4/5
- Estimated time
- 3-5 days
- Activity status
- Stale
- Clarity
- Mostly clear
- Newbie friendliness
- 42/100