rust-lang / rust-lang/rust

HashSet<K, V> has confusing errors thanks to lax BuildHasher bounds

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A-diagnostics T-compiler
Dominant language
Rust
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Description

Code
use std::collections::*;

fn make_map() -> HashSet<String, String> {
    Default::default()
}

fn main() {
    let map = make_map();
    
    // compiles!
    for pair in &map { 
    }

    // expected `String`, found `(_, _)`
    for (k, v) in map {
    }
}

Writing HashSet instead of HashMap does not cause immediate error, because HashSet is allowed to have two type arguments, and very few methods require it to have a specific type.

Current output

playground

13 |     for (k, v) in map {
   |         ^^^^^^    --- this is an iterator with items of type `String`
   |         |
   |         expected `String`, found `(_, _)`
Desired output

Ideally Rust should check early that the second type in HashSet is supposed to be a BuildHasher, and warn about that as soon as HashSet<_, InvalidType> is used.

Rationale and extra context

Lack of bound on HashSet itself + type inference make incorrect the type compile in many cases, producing either surprising behavior or confusing errors far away from the mistake.

Other cases

Similar to #87015

It's not possible to add actual trait bounds on HashSet, but maybe the compiler could be somehow informed that these bounds are always expected to be satisfied, and warn whenever they're not.

Rust Version

rustc 1.79.0-nightly (3c85e5624 2024-03-18)

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by reproducing the HashSet<String, String> example in the linked Playground and compare its behavior with the related #87015 issue. Identify where rustc could diagnose the invalid second type argument earlier; done means the compiler reports the expected BuildHasher constraint at the HashSet use rather than producing a distant iterator error.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
rust
Domain
compilers
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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