Alternate/custom key types

Any type that implements the Eq and Hash traits can be a key in HashMap. This includes:

  • bool (though not very useful since there are only two possible keys)
  • int, uint, and all variations thereof
  • String and &str (protip: you can have a HashMap keyed by String and call .get() with an &str)

Note that f32 and f64 do not implement Hash, likely because floating-point precision errors would make using them as hashmap keys horribly error-prone.

All collection classes implement Eq and Hash if their contained type also respectively implements Eq and Hash. For example, Vec<T> will implement Hash if T implements Hash.

You can easily implement Eq and Hash for a custom type with just one line: #[derive(PartialEq, Eq, Hash)]

The compiler will do the rest. If you want more control over the details, you can implement Eq and/or Hash yourself. This guide will not cover the specifics of implementing Hash.

To play around with using a struct in HashMap, let's try making a very simple user logon system:

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