The `as` keyword in Rust can be used to provide new names for existing types. This can be useful for a variety of purposes, such as:
- Renaming a type to make it more readable or understandable.
- Disambiguating two types of the same name.
- Creating a type alias.
For example, the following code shows how to use the `as` keyword to rename the `Result` type from the `std::fmt` module to `FmtResult`:
use std::fmt::Result as FmtResult;
use std::io::Result as IoResult;
fn function1() -> FmtResult {
// --snip--
}
fn function2() -> IoResult<()> {
// --snip--
}
In this example, the `FmtResult` alias is used to make the `Result` type from the `std::fmt` module more readable and understandable. The `IoResult` alias is used to disambiguate the `Result` type from the `std::io` module.
Another example of using the `as` keyword is to create a type alias. A type alias is a new type name that is simply a synonym for an existing type. For example, the following code shows how to create a type alias called `MyResult` that is synonymous with the `Result` type from the `std::io` module:
type MyResult = std::io::Result;
fn function() -> MyResult {
// --snip--
}
In this example, the `MyResult` type alias is used to make the code more concise and readable.