How to use struct self in member method closure

Solution 1:

Split your data and methods into smaller components, then you can take disjoint borrows to various components on self:

fn fetch_access_token(_base_url: &str) -> String { String::new() }
fn get_env_url() -> String { String::new() }

#[derive(Default)]
struct BaseUrl(Option<String>);

impl BaseUrl {
    fn get(&mut self) -> &str {
        self.0.get_or_insert_with(|| get_env_url())
    }
}

#[derive(Default)]
struct App {
    base_url: BaseUrl,
    access_token: Option<String>,
}

impl App {
    fn new() -> App {
        App::default()
    }

    fn get_access_token(&mut self) -> &str {
        let base_url = &mut self.base_url;
        self.access_token
            .get_or_insert_with(|| fetch_access_token(base_url.get()))
    }
}

fn main() {}

You can go further and do this for both values:

fn fetch_access_token(_base_url: &str) -> String { String::new() }
fn get_env_url() -> String { String::new() }

#[derive(Default)]
struct BaseUrl(Option<String>);

impl BaseUrl {
    fn get(&mut self) -> &str {
        self.0.get_or_insert_with(|| get_env_url())
    }
}

#[derive(Default)]
struct AccessToken(Option<String>);

impl AccessToken {
    fn get(&mut self, base_url: &str) -> &str {
        self.0.get_or_insert_with(|| fetch_access_token(base_url))
    }
}

#[derive(Default)]
struct App {
    base_url: BaseUrl,
    access_token: AccessToken,
}

impl App {
    fn new() -> App {
        App::default()
    }

    fn get_access_token(&mut self) -> &str {
        let base_url = self.base_url.get();
        self.access_token.get(base_url)
    }
}

fn main() {}

Which lets you see that you can abstract out common functionality:

fn fetch_access_token(_base_url: &str) -> String { String::new() }
fn get_env_url() -> String { String::new() }

#[derive(Default)]
struct StringCache(Option<String>);

impl StringCache {
    fn get<F>(&mut self, f: F) -> &str
    where
        F: FnOnce() -> String,
    {
        self.0.get_or_insert_with(f)
    }
}

#[derive(Default)]
struct App {
    base_url: StringCache,
    access_token: StringCache,
}

impl App {
    fn new() -> App {
        App::default()
    }

    fn get_access_token(&mut self) -> &str {
        let base_url = self.base_url.get(get_env_url);
        self.access_token.get(|| fetch_access_token(base_url))
    }
}

fn main() {}

And then you realize the abstraction can be made generic:

fn fetch_access_token(_base_url: &str) -> String { String::new() }
fn get_env_url() -> String { String::new() }

#[derive(Default)]
struct Cache<T>(Option<T>);

impl<T> Cache<T> {
    fn get<F>(&mut self, f: F) -> &T
    where
        F: FnOnce() -> T,
    {
        self.0.get_or_insert_with(f)
    }
}

#[derive(Default)]
struct App {
    base_url: Cache<String>,
    access_token: Cache<String>,
}

impl App {
    fn new() -> App {
        App::default()
    }

    fn get_access_token(&mut self) -> &str {
        let base_url = self.base_url.get(get_env_url);
        self.access_token.get(|| fetch_access_token(base_url))
    }
}

fn main() {}

See also:

• Borrowing references to attributes in a struct
• Why is it discouraged to accept a reference to a String (&String), Vec (&Vec) or Box (&Box) as a function argument?
• The Rust Programming Language chapter on closures, which creates this caching struct as part of the exercises.

Solution 2:

The closure passed to the get_or_insert_with method in Option<T> is of type FnOnce - it thus consumes or moves the captured variables. In this case self is captured because of the usage of self.get_base_url() in the closure. However, since self is already borrowed, the closure cannot consume or move the value of self for unique access.

This can be circumvented by using the get_or_insert method, but it will require you to perform the potentially expensive operation of fetching the access token every time get_access_token is called regardless of whether access_token is None or not.