Is it possible in Rust to delete an object before the end of scope?
Yes.
Is it possible to call the destructor of an object explicitly in Rust?
No.
To clarify, you can use std::mem::drop to transfer ownership of a variable, which causes it to go out of scope:
struct Noisy;
impl Drop for Noisy {
fn drop(&mut self) {
println!("Dropping Noisy!");
}
}
fn main() {
let a = Noisy;
let b = Noisy;
println!("1");
drop(b);
println!("2");
}
1
Dropping Noisy!
2
Dropping Noisy!
However, you are forbidden from calling the destructor (the implementation of the Drop trait) yourself. Doing so would lead to double free situations as the compiler will still insert the automatic call to the the Drop trait.
Amusing side note — the implementation of drop is quite elegant:
pub fn drop<T>(_x: T) { }