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0 pointsButtons8402y ago0 comments

I was speaking more abstractly.

Strictly speaking, a pointer points to 1 address, not a set.

Abstractly speaking, a lifetime represents a set of memory that lives a certain length of time, and thus also represents the set of memory a reference with that lifetime can reference.

It's just a different way of thinking about lifetimes which helped me understand them.

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Georgelemental2y ago

> a pointer points to 1 address, not a set.

Rust "fat pointers" like `&str` contain a length as well.

> represents the set of memory a reference with that lifetime can reference.

No, you can have memory that is alive for a particular lifetime but that you are not allowed to access via a pointer with said lifetime (because it's out of bounds).

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