feat: Add type conversion and parsing exercises

exercises/conversions/README.md

@@ -0,0 +1,20 @@
+### Type conversions
+
+
+Rust offers a multitude of ways to convert a value of a given type into another type.
+
+The simplest form of type conversion is a type cast expression. It is denoted with the binary operator `as`. For instance, `println!("{}", 1 + 1.0);` would not compile, since `1` is an integer while `1.0` is a float. However, `println!("{}", 1 as f32 + 1.0)` should compile. The exercise [`using_as`](using_as.rs) tries to cover this.
+
+Rust also offers traits that facilitate type conversions upon implementation. These traits can be found under the [`convert`](https://doc.rust-lang.org/std/convert/index.html) module.
+The traits are the following:
+- `From` and `Into` covered in [`from_into`](from_into.rs)
+- `TryFrom` and `TryInto` covered in [`try_from_into`](try_from_into.rs)
+- `AsRef` and `AsMut` covered in [`as_ref_mut`](as_ref_mut.rs)
+
+Furthermore, the `std::str` module offers a trait called [`FromStr`](https://doc.rust-lang.org/std/str/trait.FromStr.html) which helps with converting strings into target types via the `parse` method on strings. If properly implemented for a given type `Person`, then `let p: Person = "Mark,20".parse().unwrap()` should both compile and run without panicking.
+
+These should be the main ways ***within the standard library*** to convert data into your desired types.
+
+#### Book Sections
+
+These are not directly covered in the book, but the standard library has great documentation for [conversions here](https://doc.rust-lang.org/std/convert/index.html). The `FromStr` trait is also covered [here](https://doc.rust-lang.org/std/str/trait.FromStr.html).

exercises/conversions/as_ref_mut.rs

@@ -0,0 +1,36 @@
+// AsRef and AsMut allow for cheap reference-to-reference conversions.
+// Read more about them at https://doc.rust-lang.org/std/convert/trait.AsRef.html
+// and https://doc.rust-lang.org/std/convert/trait.AsMut.html, respectively.
+
+// Obtain the number of bytes (not characters) in the given argument
+// Add the AsRef trait appropriately as a trait bound
+fn byte_counter<T>(arg: T) -> usize {
+    arg.as_ref().as_bytes().len()
+}
+
+// Obtain the number of characters (not bytes) in the given argument
+// Add the AsRef trait appropriately as a trait bound
+fn char_counter<T>(arg: T) -> usize {
+    arg.as_ref().chars().collect::<Vec<_>>().len()
+}
+
+fn main() {
+    let s = "Café au lait";
+    println!("{}", char_counter(s));
+    println!("{}", byte_counter(s));
+}
+
+#[cfg(test)]
+mod tests {
+    use super::*;
+
+    #[test]
+    fn different_counts() {
+        let s = "Café au lait";
+        assert_ne!(char_counter(s), byte_counter(s));
+    }
+    fn same_counts() {
+        let s = "Cafe au lait";
+        assert_eq!(char_counter(s), byte_counter(s));
+    }
+}

exercises/conversions/from_into.rs

@@ -0,0 +1,72 @@
+// The From trait is used for value-to-value conversions.
+// If From is implemented correctly for a type, the Into trait should work conversely.
+// You can read more about it at https://doc.rust-lang.org/std/convert/trait.From.html
+#[derive(Debug)]
+struct Person {
+    name: String,
+    age: usize,
+}
+
+// We implement the Default trait to use it as a fallback
+// when the provided string is not convertible into a Person object
+impl Default for Person {
+    fn default() -> Person {
+        Person {
+            name: String::from("John"),
+            age: 30,
+        }
+    }
+}
+
+// Your task is to complete this implementation
+// in order for the line `let p = Person::from("Mark,20")` to compile
+// Please note that you'll need to parse the age component into a `usize`
+// with something like `"4".parse::<usize>()`. The outcome of this needs to
+// be handled appropriately.
+//
+// Steps:
+// 1. If the length of the provided string is 0, then return the default of Person
+// 2. Split the given string on the commas present in it
+// 3. Extract the first element from the split operation and use it as the name
+// 4. Extract the other element from the split operation and parse it into a `usize` as the age
+// If while parsing the age, something goes wrong, then return the default of Person
+// Otherwise, then return an instantiated Person onject with the results
+impl From<&str> for Person {
+    fn from(s: &str) -> Person {
+    }
+}
+
+fn main() {
+    // Use the `from` function
+    let p1 = Person::from("Mark,20");
+    // Since From is implemented for Person, we should be able to use Into
+    let p2: Person = "Gerald,70".into();
+    println!("{:?}", p1);
+    println!("{:?}", p2);
+}
+
+#[cfg(test)]
+mod tests {
+    use super::*;
+    #[test]
+    fn test_default() {
+        // Test that the default person is 30 year old John
+        let dp = Person::default();
+        assert_eq!(dp.name, "John");
+        assert_eq!(dp.age, 30);
+    }
+    #[test]
+    fn test_bad_convert() {
+        // Test that John is returned when bad string is provided
+        let p = Person::from("");
+        assert_eq!(p.name, "John");
+        assert_eq!(p.age, 30);
+    }
+    #[test]
+    fn test_good_convert() {
+        // Test that "Mark,20" works
+        let p = Person::from("Mark,20");
+        assert_eq!(p.name, "Mark");
+        assert_eq!(p.age, 20);
+    }
+}

exercises/conversions/from_str.rs

@@ -0,0 +1,48 @@
+// This does practically the same thing that TryFrom<&str> does.
+// Additionally, upon implementing FromStr, you can use the `parse` method
+// on strings to generate an object of the implementor type.
+// You can read more about it at https://doc.rust-lang.org/std/str/trait.FromStr.html
+use std::str::FromStr;
+
+#[derive(Debug)]
+struct Person {
+    name: String,
+    age: usize,
+}
+
+// Steps:
+// 1. If the length of the provided string is 0, then return an error
+// 2. Split the given string on the commas present in it
+// 3. Extract the first element from the split operation and use it as the name
+// 4. Extract the other element from the split operation and parse it into a `usize` as the age
+// If while parsing the age, something goes wrong, then return an error
+// Otherwise, then return a Result of a Person object
+impl FromStr for Person {
+    type Err = String;
+    fn from_str(s: &str) -> Result<Person, Self::Err> {
+    }
+}
+
+fn main() {
+    let p = "Mark,20".parse::<Person>().unwrap();
+    println!("{:?}", p);
+}
+
+#[cfg(test)]
+mod tests {
+    use super::*;
+
+    #[test]
+    fn empty_input() {
+        assert!("".parse::<Person>().is_err());
+    }
+    #[test]
+    fn good_input() {
+        assert!("John,32".parse::<Person>().is_ok());
+    }
+    #[test]
+    #[should_panic]
+    fn missing_age() {
+        "John".parse::<Person>().unwrap();
+    }
+}

exercises/conversions/try_from_into.rs

@@ -0,0 +1,70 @@
+// TryFrom is a simple and safe type conversion that may fail in a controlled way under some circumstances.
+// Basically, this is the same as From. The main difference is that this should return a Result type
+// instead of the target type itself.
+// You can read more about it at https://doc.rust-lang.org/std/convert/trait.TryFrom.html
+use std::convert::{TryInto, TryFrom};
+
+#[derive(Debug)]
+struct Person {
+    name: String,
+    age: usize,
+}
+
+// Your task is to complete this implementation
+// in order for the line `let p = Person::try_from("Mark,20")` to compile
+// and return an Ok result of inner type Person.
+// Please note that you'll need to parse the age component into a `usize`
+// with something like `"4".parse::<usize>()`. The outcome of this needs to
+// be handled appropriately.
+//
+// Steps:
+// 1. If the length of the provided string is 0, then return an error
+// 2. Split the given string on the commas present in it
+// 3. Extract the first element from the split operation and use it as the name
+// 4. Extract the other element from the split operation and parse it into a `usize` as the age
+// If while parsing the age, something goes wrong, then return an error
+// Otherwise, then return a Result of a Person object
+impl TryFrom<&str> for Person {
+    type Error = String;
+    fn try_from(s: &str) -> Result<Self, Self::Error> {
+    }
+}
+
+fn main() {
+    // Use the `from` function
+    let p1 = Person::try_from("Mark,20");
+    // Since From is implemented for Person, we should be able to use Into
+    let p2: Result<Person, _> = "Gerald,70".try_into();
+    println!("{:?}", p1);
+    println!("{:?}", p2);
+}
+
+#[cfg(test)]
+mod tests {
+    use super::*;
+    #[test]
+    fn test_bad_convert() {
+        // Test that John is returned when bad string is provided
+        let p = Person::try_from("");
+        assert!(p.is_err());
+    }
+    #[test]
+    fn test_good_convert() {
+        // Test that "Mark,20" works
+        let p = Person::try_from("Mark,20");
+        assert!(p.is_ok());
+        let p = p.unwrap();
+        assert_eq!(p.name, "Mark");
+        assert_eq!(p.age, 20);
+    }
+    #[test]
+    #[should_panic]
+    fn test_panic_empty_input() {
+        let p: Person = "".try_into().unwrap();
+    }
+    #[test]
+    #[should_panic]
+    fn test_panic_bad_age() {
+        let p = Person::try_from("Mark,twenty").unwrap();
+    }
+}

exercises/conversions/using_as.rs

@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+// Type casting in Rust is done via the usage of the `as` operator.
+// Please note that the `as` operator is not only used when type casting.
+// It also helps with renaming imports.
+
+// The goal is to make sure that the division does not fail to compile
+fn average(values: &[f64]) -> f64 {
+    let total = values
+        .iter()
+        .fold(0.0, |a, b| a + b);
+    total / values.len()
+}
+
+fn main() {
+    let values = [3.5, 0.3, 13.0, 11.7];
+    println!("{}", average(&values));
+}

info.toml

@@ -610,3 +610,43 @@ answers and don't understand why they work and yours doesn't.
 If you've learned from the sample solutions, I encourage you to come
 back to this exercise and try it again in a few days to reinforce
 what you've learned :)"""
+
+# TYPE CONVERSIONS
+
+[[exercises]]
+name = "using_as"
+path = "exercises/conversions/using_as.rs"
+mode = "compile"
+hint = """
+Use the `as` operator to cast one of the operands in the last line of the
+`average` function into the expected return type."""
+
+[[exercises]]
+name = "from_into"
+path = "exercises/conversions/from_into.rs"
+mode = "test"
+hint = """
+Follow the steps provided right before the `From` implementation"""
+
+[[exercises]]
+name = "try_from_into"
+path = "exercises/conversions/try_from_into.rs"
+mode = "test"
+hint = """
+Follow the steps provided right before the `From` implementation.
+You can also use the example at https://doc.rust-lang.org/std/convert/trait.TryFrom.html"""
+
+[[exercises]]
+name = "as_ref_mut"
+path = "exercises/conversions/as_ref_mut.rs"
+mode = "test"
+hint = """
+Add AsRef<str> as a trait bound to the functions."""
+
+[[exercises]]
+name = "from_str"
+path = "exercises/conversions/from_str.rs"
+mode = "test"
+hint = """
+If you've already solved try_from_into.rs, then this is almost a copy-paste.
+Otherwise, go ahead and solve try_from_into.rs first."""