How to idiomatically convert between u32 and usize?

This code works and prints "b":

fn main() {
    let s = "abc";
    let ch = s.chars().nth(1).unwrap();
    println!("{}", ch);
}

On the other hand, this code results in a mismatch type error.

fn main() {
    let s = "abc";
    let n: u32 = 1;
    let ch = s.chars().nth(n).unwrap();
    println!("{}", ch);
}

error[E0308]: mismatched types
 --> src/main.rs:5:28
  |
5 |     let ch = s.chars().nth(n).unwrap();
  |                            ^ expected usize, found u32

For some external reason, I have to use the u32 type for variable n. How can I convert u32 to usize and use it in nth()?

The as operator works for all number types:

let ch = s.chars().nth(n as usize).unwrap();

Rust forces you to cast integers to make sure you're aware of signedness or overflows.

Integer constants can have a type suffix:

let n = 1u32;

However, note that negative constants, such as -1i32 is internally - 1i32.

Integer variables declared without an explicit type specification are shown as {integer} and will be properly inferred from one of the method calls.

The most cautious thing you can do is to use TryFrom and panic when the value cannot fit within a usize:

use std::convert::TryFrom;

fn main() {
    let s = "abc";
    let n: u32 = 1;
    let n_us = usize::try_from(n).unwrap();
    let ch = s.chars().nth(n_us).unwrap();
    println!("{}", ch);
}

By blindly using as, your code will fail in mysterious ways when run on a platform where usize is smaller than 32-bits. For example, some microcontrollers use 16-bit integers as the native size:

fn main() {
    let n: u32 = 0x1_FF_FF;
    // Pretend that `usize` is 16-bit
    let n_us: u16 = n as u16;
    
    println!("{}, {}", n, n_us); // 131071, 65535
}

For broader types of numeric conversion beyond u32 <-> usize, refer to How do I convert between numeric types safely and idiomatically?.

How to idiomatically convert between u32 and usize?

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