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Fix #1253: Document enum type aliases #1255

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47 changes: 46 additions & 1 deletion src/custom_types/enum.md
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -53,11 +53,56 @@ fn main() {

```

## Type aliases

If you use a type alias, you can refer to each enum variant via its alias.
This might be useful if the enum's name is too long or too generic, and you
want to rename it.

```rust,editable
enum VeryVerboseEnumOfThingsToDoWithNumbers {
Add,
Subtract,
}

// Creates a type alias
type Operations = VeryVerboseEnumOfThingsToDoWithNumbers;

fn main() {
// We can refer to each variant via its alias, not its long and inconvenient
// name.
let x = Operations::Add;
}
```

The most common place you'll see this is in `impl` blocks using the `Self` alias.

```rust,editable
enum VeryVerboseEnumOfThingsToDoWithNumbers {
Add,
Subtract,
}

impl VeryVerboseEnumOfThingsToDoWithNumbers {
fn run(&self, x: i32, y: i32) -> i32 {
match self {
Self::Add => x + y,
Self::Subtract => x - y,
}
}
}
```

To learn more about enums and type aliases, you can read the
[stabilization report][aliasreport] from when this feature was stabilized into
Rust.

### See also:

[`match`][match], [`fn`][fn], and [`String`][str]
[`match`][match], [`fn`][fn], and [`String`][str], []

[c_struct]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Struct_(C_programming_language)
[match]: ../flow_control/match.md
[fn]: ../fn.md
[str]: ../std/str.md
[aliasreport]: https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/pull/61682/#issuecomment-502472847