What Are Raw Pointers in Rust and When to Use Them?

Raw pointers in Rust are unsafe, non-owning pointers (*const T and *mut T) that bypass the borrow checker to allow manual memory management. You use them for FFI, implementing unsafe data structures, or when you need to create reference cycles that smart pointers cannot handle.

fn main() {
    let x = 5;
    let r = &x as *const i32;
    let m = &mut x as *mut i32;

    unsafe {
        println!("Value: {}", *r);
        *m = 10;
    }
}

Use unsafe blocks to dereference raw pointers, as the compiler cannot guarantee their validity or safety.

Raw pointers are like direct memory addresses that Rust doesn't automatically check for safety. You use them when you need to talk to code written in other languages or build complex data structures that Rust's normal rules can't handle. Think of them as a manual override for the car's safety features; you have full control, but you must be extremely careful not to crash.