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Methods named len, is_empty and capacity should take constant time
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nik-rev authored Jul 25, 2025
commit 762f367f6d602e135537c2e85502e27803242a8f
20 changes: 20 additions & 0 deletions src/predictability.md
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Expand Up @@ -131,6 +131,26 @@ so on for the other traits.

[`std::ops`]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/std/ops/index.html#traits

<a id="c-constant-time-methods"></a>

## Methods `len`, `is_empty` and `capacity` take constant time (C-CONSTANT-TIME-METHODS)

The [time complexity] for methods named `len`, `is_empty` and `capacity` should be **O(1)** -
it should always take the same amount of time to run these methods regardless of
how large the collection is.

If you need to count elements by iterating, choose a different name for your methods such as `count` or `size`

### Examples from the standard library

- [`Vec::len`](https://doc.rust-lang.org/std/vec/struct.Vec.html#method.len)
- [`Vec::is_empty`](https://doc.rust-lang.org/std/vec/struct.Vec.html#method.is_empty)
- [`Vec::capacity`](https://doc.rust-lang.org/std/vec/struct.Vec.html#method.capacity)
- [`HashMap::len`](https://doc.rust-lang.org/std/collections/struct.HashMap.html#method.len)
- [`HashSet::capacity`](https://doc.rust-lang.org/std/collections/struct.HashSet.html#method.capacity)
- [`LinkedList::is_empty`](https://doc.rust-lang.org/std/collections/struct.LinkedList.html#method.is_empty)

[time complexity]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_complexity

<a id="c-deref"></a>
## Only smart pointers implement `Deref` and `DerefMut` (C-DEREF)
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