Function item types

When referred to, a function item, or the constructor of a tuple-like struct or enum variant, yields a zero-sized value of its function item type.

That type explicitly identifies the function - its name, its type arguments, and its early-bound lifetime arguments (but not its late-bound lifetime arguments, which are only assigned when the function is called) - so the value does not need to contain an actual function pointer, and no indirection is needed when the function is called.

There is no syntax that directly refers to a function item type, but the compiler will display the type as something like fn(u32) -> i32 {fn_name} in error messages.

Because the function item type explicitly identifies the function, the item types of different functions - different items, or the same item with different generics - are distinct, and mixing them will create a type error:

#![allow(unused)]
fn main() {
fn foo<T>() { }
let x = &mut foo::<i32>;
*x = foo::<u32>; //~ ERROR mismatched types
}

However, there is a coercion from function items to function pointers with the same signature, which is triggered not only when a function item is used when a function pointer is directly expected, but also when different function item types with the same signature meet in different arms of the same if or match:

#![allow(unused)]
fn main() {
let want_i32 = false;
fn foo<T>() { }

// `foo_ptr_1` has function pointer type `fn()` here
let foo_ptr_1: fn() = foo::<i32>;

// ... and so does `foo_ptr_2` - this type-checks.
let foo_ptr_2 = if want_i32 {
    foo::<i32>
} else {
    foo::<u32>
};
}

All function items implement Copy, Clone, Send, and Sync.

Fn, FnMut, and FnOnce are implemented unless the function has any of the following:

• an unsafe qualifier
• a target_feature attribute
• an ABI other than "Rust"