gregtatum_symbol_table

A fast and efficient symbol table for making it easy to work cheaply with strings.

Stores a unique list of strings, so that strings can be operated upon via stable indexes, which are stored in the Symbol type. This makes for cheap comparisons and easy storage of references to strings. The strings are accessed as Symbols that have a fn str() -> &str.

use gregtatum_symbol_table::SymbolTable;

let symbol_table = SymbolTable::new();

// Insert strings into the SymbolTable.
let hello_symbol = symbol_table.get("hello");
let world_symbol = symbol_table.get("world");

// Strings can easily be accessed.
assert_eq!(hello_symbol.str(), String::from("hello"));

String can be accessed via various convenient traits:

let hello_string: String = hello_symbol.into();
assert_eq!(hello_string, "hello");

let hello_string: &str = hello_symbol.as_ref();
assert_eq!(hello_string, "hello");

let hello_string: String = format!("{}", hello_symbol);
assert_eq!(hello_string, "hello");

// String equality works across Symbols and strings.
assert_eq!(hello, "hello");
assert_eq!(world, "world");

There are various convenient ways to get a symbol back, and work with them.

// The symbol can be looked up via a HashMap, and string comparison will cheaply
// compare the indexes, and avoid full string comparison.
assert_eq!(symbol_table.get("hello"), hello_symbol);

let hello_world = symbol_table.get("hello world");
let hello_slice = hello_world.slice(0..5).unwrap();

// Slices can easily be created, but string comparison is now a full comparison.
assert_eq!(hello_slice, hello_symbol);

// But slices can be turned back into full Symbols for cheap comparisons.
assert_eq!(hello_slice.deslice(), hello_symbol);