Unit-safe computations with quantities.
"The value of a quantity is generally expressed as the product of a number and a unit. The unit is simply a particular example of the quantity concerned which is used as a reference, and the number is the ratio of the value of the quantity to the unit." (Bureau International des Poids et Mesures: The International System of Units, 8th edition, 2006)
Basic types of quantities are defined "by convention", they do not depend on other types of quantities, for example Length, Mass or Duration.
Derived types of quantities, on the opposite, are defined as products of other types of quantities raised by some exponent.
Examples:
Volume = Length ³
Velocity = Length ¹ · Duration ⁻¹
Acceleration = Length ¹ · Duration ⁻²
Force = Mass ¹ · Acceleration ¹
Each type of quantity may have one special unit which is used as a reference for the definition of all other units, for example Meter, Kilogram and Second. The other units are then defined by their relation to the reference unit.
If a type of quantity is derived from types of quantities that all have a reference unit, then the reference unit of that type is defined by a formula that follows the formula defining the type of quantity.
Examples:
Velocity -> Meter per Second = Meter ¹ · Second ⁻¹
Acceleration -> Meter per Second squared = Meter ¹ · Second ⁻²
Force -> Newton = Kilogram ¹ · Meter ¹ · Second ⁻²
There may be different systems which define quantities, their units and the relations between these units in a different way.
This is not directly supported by this package. For each type of quantity there can be only no or exactly one reference unit. But, if you have units from different systems for the same type of quantity, you can define these units and provide mechanisms to convert between them.
The essential functionality of the package is provided by the two traits
Quantity and Unit as well as the generic struct Qty<U: Unit>.
A basic type of quantity can easily be defined using the proc-macro
attribute quantity, optionally followed by an attribute refunit and
followed by at least one attribute unit.
The macro generates an enum with the given units (incl. the refunit, if given)
as variants, an implemention of trait Unit for this enum and a type alias of
Qty with the enum as parameter and named after the given struct.
In addition, it creates a constant for each enum variant, thus providing a constant for each unit. This implies that the identifiers of all units over all defined quantitities have to be unique!
Example:
```rust
/// The quantity of matter in a physical body. struct Mass {}
asserteq!(MILLIGRAM.name(), "Milligram"); asserteq!(POUND.symbol(), "lb"); asserteq!(TONNE.siprefix(), Some(SIPrefix::MEGA)); assert_eq!(CARAT.scale(), Some(Amnt!(0.0002))); ```
In a future version, the macro will also allow to create a derived type of quantity based on more basic types of quantities.
The package allows to use either float of fixed-point decimal values for
the numerical part of a Quantity value.
Internally the type alias AmountT is used. This alias can be controlled by
the optional feature fpdec (see
features.
When feature fpdec is off (= default), AmountT is defined as f64 on a
64-bit system or as f32 on a 32-bit system.
When feature fpdec is activated, AmountT is defined as Decimal (imported
from crate fpdec).
The macro Amnt! can be used to convert float literals correctly to AmountT
depending on the configuration. This is done automatically for the scale
values of units by the proc-macro quantity described above.
An instance of a quantity type can be created by calling the function new,
giving an amount and a unit. Alternatively, a unit can be multiplied by an
amount.
Example:
```rust
let m = Mass::new(Amnt!(17.4), GRAM); asserteq!(m.tostring(), "17.4 g"); let m = Amnt!(17.4) * GRAM; asserteq!(m.tostring(), "17.4 g"); ```
If the quantity type has a refernce unit, a quantity instance can be converted
to a quantity instance with a different unit of the same type by calling the
method convert.
Example:
```rust
let x = Mass::new(Amnt!(13.5), GRAM); let y = x.convert(CARAT).unwrap(); asserteq!(y.tostring(), "67.5 ct"); ```
Quantity values with the same unit can always be added or subtracted. Adding or subtracting values with different values requires the units to convertable into each other.
Example:
```rust
let x = Amnt!(17.4) * GRAM; let y = Amnt!(1.407) * KILOGRAM; let z = x + y; asserteq!(z.amount(), Amnt!(1424.4)); asserteq!(z.unit(), GRAM); let z = y + x; asserteq!(z.tostring(), "1.4244 kg"); ```
Quantity values can always be multiplied or divided by numerical values, preserving the unit.
Example:
```rust
let x = Amnt!(7.4); let y = Amnt!(1.7) * KILOGRAM; let z = x * y; asserteq!(z.tostring(), "12.58 kg"); ```
The package provides optional modules with definitions of commonly used quantities; each can be activated by a feature with a corresponding name (see below).
By default, only the feature std is enabled.
quantities to use the standard
library, so that conversion to string, formatting and printing are
available. When disabled, the use of crate alloc together with a
system-specific allocator is needed to use that functionality.f64 or f32 fpdec::Decimal is used
as AmountT (see above).With the following features additional modules can be enabled, each providing a predefined quantity.