How to create a String directly?

TL;DR:

As of Rust 1.9, str::to_string, str::to_owned, String::from, str::into all have the same performance characteristics. Use whichever you prefer.

The most obvious and idiomatic way to convert a string slice (&str) to an owned string (String) is to use ToString::to_string. This works for any type that implements Display. This includes string slices, but also integers, IP addresses, paths, errors, and so on.

Before Rust 1.9, the str implementation of to_string leveraged the formatting infrastructure. While it worked, it was overkill and not the most performant path.

A lighter solution was to use ToOwned::to_owned, which is implemented for types that have a "borrowed" and an "owned" pair. It is implemented in an efficient manner.

Another lightweight solution is to use Into::into which leverages From::from. This is also implemented efficiently.

For your specific case, the best thing to do is to accept a &str, as thirtythreeforty answered. Then you need to do zero allocations, which is the best outcome.

In general, I will probably use into if I need to make an allocated string — it's only 4 letters long ^_^. When answering questions on Stack Overflow, I'll use to_owned as it's much more obvious what is happening.

No, the str::to_string() method is the canonical way of creating a String from an &'static str (a string literal). I even like it for the reason you dislike it: it's a little verbose. Because it involves a heap allocation, you should think twice before invoking it in cases such as these. Also note that since Rust gained impl specialization, str::to_string is no slower than str::to_owned or its ilk.

However, what you really want here is a func1 that can easily be passed any string, be it a &str or a String. Because a String will Deref to a &str, you can have func1 accept an &str, thereby avoiding the String allocation altogether. See this example (playground):

fn func1(s: &str) {
    println!("{}", s);
}

fn main() {
   let allocated_string: String = "owned string".to_string();
   func1("static string");
   func1(&allocated_string);
}