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Vector

vector<T> is the only primitive collection type provided by Move. A vector<T> is a homogenous collection of T’s that can grow or shrink by pushing/popping values off the “end”.

A vector<T> can be instantiated with any type T. For example, vector<u64>, vector<address>, vector<0x42::MyModule::MyResource>, and vector<vector<u8>> are all valid vector types.

Literals

General vector Literals

Vectors of any type can be created with vector literals.

SyntaxTypeDescription
vector[]vector[]: vector<T> where T is any single, non-reference typeAn empty vector
vector[e1, ..., en]vector[e1, ..., en]: vector<T> where e_i: T s.t. 0 < i <= n and n > 0A vector with n elements (of length n)

In these cases, the type of the vector is inferred, either from the element type or from the vector’s usage. If the type cannot be inferred, or simply for added clarity, the type can be specified explicitly:

vector<T>[]: vector<T>
vector<T>[e1, ..., en]: vector<T>

Example Vector Literals

script {
  fun example() {
    (vector[]: vector<bool>);
    (vector[0u8, 1u8, 2u8]: vector<u8>);
    (vector<u128>[]: vector<u128>);
    (vector<address>[@0x42, @0x100]: vector<address>);
  }
}

vector<u8> literals

A common use-case for vectors in Move is to represent “byte arrays”, which are represented with vector<u8>. These values are often used for cryptographic purposes, such as a public key or a hash result. These values are so common that specific syntax is provided to make the values more readable, as opposed to having to use vector[] where each individual u8 value is specified in numeric form.

There are currently two supported types of vector<u8> literals, byte strings and hex strings.

Byte Strings

Byte strings are quoted string literals prefixed by a b, e.g. b"Hello!\n".

These are ASCII encoded strings that allow for escape sequences. Currently, the supported escape sequences are:

Escape SequenceDescription
\nNew line (or Line feed)
\rCarriage return
\tTab
\\Backslash
\0Null
\"Quote
\xHHHex escape, inserts the hex byte sequence HH

Hex Strings

Hex strings are quoted string literals prefixed by a x, e.g. x"48656C6C6F210A".

Each byte pair, ranging from 00 to FF, is interpreted as hex encoded u8 value. So each byte pair corresponds to a single entry in the resulting vector<u8>.

Example String Literals

script {
  fun byte_and_hex_strings() {
    assert!(b"" == x"", 0);
    assert!(b"Hello!\n" == x"48656C6C6F210A", 1);
    assert!(b"\x48\x65\x6C\x6C\x6F\x21\x0A" == x"48656C6C6F210A", 2);
    assert!(
        b"\"Hello\tworld!\"\n \r \\Null=\0" ==
            x"2248656C6C6F09776F726C6421220A200D205C4E756C6C3D00",
        3
    );
  }
}

Operations

vector provides several operations via the std::vector module in the Move standard library, as shown below. More operations may be added over time. Up-to-date document on vector can be found here.

FunctionDescriptionAborts?
vector::empty<T>(): vector<T>Create an empty vector that can store values of type TNever
vector::is_empty<T>(): boolReturn true if the vector v has no elements and false otherwise.Never
vector::singleton<T>(t: T): vector<T>Create a vector of size 1 containing tNever
vector::length<T>(v: &vector<T>): u64Return the length of the vector vNever
vector::push_back<T>(v: &mut vector<T>, t: T)Add t to the end of vNever
vector::pop_back<T>(v: &mut vector<T>): TRemove and return the last element in vIf v is empty
vector::borrow<T>(v: &vector<T>, i: u64): &TReturn an immutable reference to the T at index iIf i is not in bounds
vector::borrow_mut<T>(v: &mut vector<T>, i: u64): &mut TReturn a mutable reference to the T at index iIf i is not in bounds
vector::destroy_empty<T>(v: vector<T>)Delete vIf v is not empty
vector::append<T>(v1: &mut vector<T>, v2: vector<T>)Add the elements in v2 to the end of v1Never
vector::reverse_append<T>(lhs: &mut vector<T>, other: vector<T>)Pushes all of the elements of the other vector into the lhs vector, in the reverse order as they occurred in otherNever
vector::contains<T>(v: &vector<T>, e: &T): boolReturn true if e is in the vector v. Otherwise, returns falseNever
vector::swap<T>(v: &mut vector<T>, i: u64, j: u64)Swaps the elements at the ith and jth indices in the vector vIf i or j is out of bounds
vector::reverse<T>(v: &mut vector<T>)Reverses the order of the elements in the vector v in placeNever
vector::reverse_slice<T>(v: &mut vector<T>, l: u64, r: u64)Reverses the order of the elements [l, r) in the vector v in placeNever
vector::index_of<T>(v: &vector<T>, e: &T): (bool, u64)Return (true, i) if e is in the vector v at index i. Otherwise, returns (false, 0)Never
vector::insert<T>(v: &mut vector<T>, i: u64, e: T)Insert a new element e at position 0 <= i <= length, using O(length - i) timeIf i is out of bounds
vector::remove<T>(v: &mut vector<T>, i: u64): TRemove the ith element of the vector v, shifting all subsequent elements. This is O(n) and preserves ordering of elements in the vectorIf i is out of bounds
vector::swap_remove<T>(v: &mut vector<T>, i: u64): TSwap the ith element of the vector v with the last element and then pop the element, This is O(1), but does not preserve ordering of elements in the vectorIf i is out of bounds
vector::trim<T>(v: &mut vector<T>, new_len: u64): u64Trim the vector v to the smaller size new_len and return the evicted elements in ordernew_len is larger than the length of v
vector::trim_reverse<T>(v: &mut vector<T>, new_len: u64): u64Trim the vector v to the smaller size new_len and return the evicted elements in the reverse ordernew_len is larger than the length of v
vector::rotate<T>(v: &mut vector<T>, rot: u64): u64rotate(&mut [1, 2, 3, 4, 5], 2) -> [3, 4, 5, 1, 2] in place, returns the split point ie. 3 in this exampleNever
vector::rotate_slice<T>(v: &mut vector<T>, left: u64, rot: u64, right: u64): u64rotate a slice [left, right) with left <= rot <= right in place, returns the split pointNever

Example

script {
  use std::vector;
 
  fun example() {
    let v = vector::empty<u64>();
    vector::push_back(&mut v, 5);
    vector::push_back(&mut v, 6);
 
    assert!(*vector::borrow(&v, 0) == 5, 42);
    assert!(*vector::borrow(&v, 1) == 6, 42);
    assert!(vector::pop_back(&mut v) == 6, 42);
    assert!(vector::pop_back(&mut v) == 5, 42);
  }
}

Destroying and copying vectors

Some behaviors of vector<T> depend on the abilities of the element type, T. For example, vectors containing elements that do not have drop cannot be implicitly discarded like v in the example above—they must be explicitly destroyed with vector::destroy_empty.

Note that vector::destroy_empty will abort at runtime unless vec contains zero elements:

script {
  fun destroy_any_vector<T>(vec: vector<T>) {
    vector::destroy_empty(vec) // deleting this line will cause a compiler error
  }
}

But no error would occur for dropping a vector that contains elements with drop:

script {
  fun destroy_droppable_vector<T: drop>(vec: vector<T>) {
    // valid!
    // nothing needs to be done explicitly to destroy the vector
  }
}

Similarly, vectors cannot be copied unless the element type has copy. In other words, a vector<T> has copy if and only if T has copy.

For more details see the sections on type abilities and generics.

Ownership

As mentioned above, vector values can be copied only if the elements can be copied.