Static and Const

Static and constant variables are two different ways to create globally-scoped values that cannot be moved or reallocated during the execution of the program.

const

Constant variables are evaluated at compile time and their values are inlined wherever they are used:

const BEST_NUMBER: u8 = 42;

fn main() {
    println!("The best number is: {BEST_NUMBER}");
}

According to the Rust RFC Book these are inlined upon use.

Only functions marked const can be called at compile time to generate const values. const functions can however be called at runtime.

static

Static variables will live during the whole execution of the program, and therefore will not move:

static BANNER: &str = "Welcome to RustOS 3.14";

fn main() {
    println!("{BANNER}");
}

As noted in the Rust RFC Book, these are not inlined upon use and have an actual associated memory location. This is useful for unsafe and embedded code, and the variable lives through the entirety of the program execution. When a globally-scoped value does not have a reason to need object identity, const is generally preferred.

This slide should take about 5 minutes.
  • Mention that const behaves semantically similar to C++’s constexpr.
  • static, on the other hand, is much more similar to a const or mutable global variable in C++.
  • static provides object identity: an address in memory and state as required by types with interior mutability such as Mutex<T>.
  • It isn’t super common that one would need a runtime evaluated constant, but it is helpful and safer than using a static.

Properties table:

PropertyStaticConstant
Has an address in memoryYesNo (inlined)
Lives for the entire duration of the programYesNo
Can be mutableYes (unsafe)No
Evaluated at compile timeYes (initialised at compile time)Yes
Inlined wherever it is usedNoYes

More to Explore

Because static variables are accessible from any thread, they must be Sync. Interior mutability is possible through a Mutex, atomic or similar.

Thread-local data can be created with the macro std::thread_local.