Rust 101: Understanding the Basics of Syntax and Data Types

Sterling Cobb
2 min readDec 21, 2022

Rust is a programming language that is known for its safety, efficiency, and concurrency. It is a statically-typed language, which means that the type of each value must be known at compile time. In this article, we will explore the syntax and data types in Rust, with a focus on best practices for using them effectively.

Syntax:

One of the key features of Rust’s syntax is its use of curly braces to define blocks of code. For example:

fn main() {
// code goes here
}r

Another important aspect of Rust’s syntax is its use of snake_case for naming variables and functions. For example:

let num_of_items = 10;
fn process_items() {
// code goes here
}

Data Types:

Rust has a wide range of data types, including scalar types, compound types, and a special “never” type.

Scalar types represent a single value, and include integers (e.g. i32), floating-point numbers (e.g. f64), and boolean values (bool). For example:

let x: i32 = 5;
let y: f64 = 3.14;
let z: bool = true;

Compound types can contain multiple values, and include arrays ([T; N]) and tuples ((T1, T2, ...)). Arrays are fixed-size, whereas tuples can have different sizes and types for each element. For example:

let a: [i32; 3] = [1, 2, 3];
let b: (f64, bool) = (3.14, true);

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