Rust For Data

This book is available for free online at rustfordata.com You can find the source code for book in ./rust4data-book This book is very early, so expect code to change quite a bit.

Feel free to open an issue with any bugs, mistakes, or requests you may have.

What is this book about?

This series of posts is about using Rust for data engineering tasks for people who are already familiar with Python and are curious about Rust. It will not cover every aspect of Rust, or of Python. Instead, it aims to give practical examples of how common engineering tasks done in Python might be done in Rust, along with representative benchmarks.

We will cover a variety of topics, including:

• Getting data from an API
• Scraping a website
• Parsing data and using structs
• Data Transformation
• Writing Data
• Other topics as I feel like it

This book is not an introduction to either Rust or Python. There are many great resources to both out there. If you are not familiar with Python, the official Python Tutorial is a great starting point.

As for Rust, the Rust Book is a great introduction to the language and a must read. I can also recommend Rust in Action as well.

In particular, I think it's important to understand some of the core principals behind static and dynamic typing, as well as memory safety and ownership. The borrow-checker in Rust is well-known as a steep hurdle to climb, but once you manage to understand it, you start writing better code. Don't be discouraged, it takes time and I am still on the learning journey with you.