Vector

vector<T> is the only primitive collection type provided by Move. A vector<T> is a homogenous collection of T's that can grow or shrink by pushing/popping values off the "end".

A vector<T> can be instantiated with any type T. For example, vector<u64>, vector<address>, vector<0x42::MyModule::MyResource>, and vector<vector<u8>> are all valid vector types.

General vector literals:

Vectors of any type can be created with vector literals.

Syntax	Type	Description
vector[]	b97d28f69377413a9cfe5e0a2182e244-f847a5c4358942e8b68cb3ec0bafb0e1	An empty vector
vector[e1, ..., en]	vector[e1, ..., en]: vector<T> where e_i: T s.t. 0 < i <= n and n > 0	A vector with n elements (of length n)

In these cases, the type of the vector is inferred, either from the element type or from the vector's usage. If the type cannot be inferred, or simply for added clarity, the type can be specified explicitly:

vector<T>[]: vector<T>
vector<T>[e1, ..., en]: vector<T>

Example vector literals

(vector[]: vector<bool>);
(vector[0u8, 1u8, 2u8]: vector<u8>);
(vector<u128>[]: vector<u128>);
(vector<address>[@0x42, @0x100]: vector<address>);

Vector<u8> literal

vector<u8> literals are used to represent byte and hex strings in move.

let byte_string_example:vector<u8> = b"Hello world"; //Byte strings are quoted string literals prefixed by a b
let hex_string_example:vector<u8> = x"48656c6c6f20776f726c64"; //Hex strings are quoted string literals prefixed by a x

Up-to-date document on various operations on vector can be found here.

let list = vector::empty<u64>();
        
vector::push_back(&mut list, 10);
vector::push_back(&mut list, 20);

assert!(*vector::borrow(&list, 0) == 10, 9);
assert!(*vector::borrow(&list, 1) == 20, 9);

assert!(vector::pop_back(&mut list) == 20, 9);
assert!(vector::pop_back(&mut list) == 10, 9);

Destroying and copying vectors:

Some behaviors of vector<T> depend on the abilities of the element type, T. For example, vectors containing elements that do not have drop cannot be implicitly discarded like v in the example above--they must be explicitly destroyed with vector::destroy_empty.

Note that vector::destroy_empty will abort at runtime unless vec contains zero elements:

fun destroy_any_vector<T>(vec: vector<T>) {
    vector::destroy_empty(vec) // deleting this line will cause a compiler error
}

But no error would occur for dropping a vector that contains elements with drop:

fun destroy_droppable_vector<T: drop>(vec: vector<T>) {
    // valid!
    // nothing needs to be done explicitly to destroy the vector
}

Similarly, vectors cannot be copied unless the element type has copy. In other words, a vector<T> has copy if and only if T has copy. However, even copyable vectors are never implicitly copied:

let x = vector::singleton<u64>(10);
let y = copy x; // compiler error without the copy!

Copies of large vectors can be expensive, so the compiler requires explicit copy's to make it easier to see where they are happening.