Generic map as function argument - dictionary

Question

I wrote a method:
fn foo(input: HashMap<String, Vec<String>>) {...}
I then realized that for the purpose of writing tests, I'd like to have control of the iteration order (maybe a BTreeMap or LinkedHashMap). This led to two questions:
Is there some trait or combination of traits I could use that would essentially express "a map of string to string-vector"? I didn't see anything promising in the docs for HashMap.
It turns out that in this method, I just want to iterate over the map entries, and then the items in each string vector, but couldn't figure out the right syntax for specifying this. What's the correct way to write this?
fn foo(input: IntoIterator<(String, IntoIterator<String>)>) {...}

Answer 1

There's no such trait to describe an abstract HashMap. I believe there's no plan to make one. The best answer so far is your #2 suggestion: for a read-only HashMap you probably just want something to iterate on.
To answer at the syntax level, you tried to write:
fn foo(input: IntoIterator<(String, IntoIterator<String>)>)
But this is not valid because IntoIterator takes no template argument:
pub trait IntoIterator where Self::IntoIter::Item == Self::Item {
type Item;
type IntoIter: Iterator;
fn into_iter(self) -> Self::IntoIter;
}
It takes two associated types, however, so what you really wanted to express is probably the following (internally I changed the nested IntoIterator to a concrete type like Vec for simplicity):
fn foo<I>(input: I)
where I: IntoIterator<
Item=(String, Vec<String>),
IntoIter=IntoIter<String, Vec<String>>>
However the choice if IntoIterator is not always suitable because it implies a transfer of ownership. If you just wanted to borrow the HashMap for read-only purposes, you'd be probably better with the standard iterator trait of a HashMap, Iterator<Item=(&'a String, &'a Vec<String>)>.
fn foo_iter<'a, I>(input: I)
where I: Iterator<Item=(&'a String, &'a Vec<String>)>
Which you can use several times by asking for a new iterator, unlike the first version.
let mut h = HashMap::new();
h.insert("The Beatles".to_string(),
vec!["Come Together".to_string(),
"Twist And Shout".to_string()]);
h.insert("The Rolling Stones".to_string(),
vec!["Paint It Black".to_string(),
"Satisfaction".to_string()]);
foo_iter(h.iter());
foo_iter(h.iter());
foo(h);
//foo(h); <-- error: use of moved value: `h`
Full gist
EDIT
As asked in comments, here is the version of foo for nested IntoIterators instead of the simpler Vec:
fn foo<I, IVecString>(input: I)
where
I: IntoIterator<
Item=(String, IVecString),
IntoIter=std::collections::hash_map::IntoIter<String, IVecString>>,
IVecString: IntoIterator<
Item=String,
IntoIter=std::vec::IntoIter<String>>

Answer 2

There are not traits that define a common interface for containers. The only trait that maybe is suited for your is the Index trait.
See below for a working example of the correct syntax for IntoIterator and the Index traits. You need to use references if you don't want consume the input, so be careful with lifetime parameters.
use std::ops::Index;
use std::iter::IntoIterator;
use std::collections::HashMap;
// this consume the input
fn foo<I: IntoIterator<Item = (String, String)>>(input: I) {
let mut c = 0;
for _ in input {
c += 1;
}
println!("{}", c);
}
// maybe you want this
fn foo_ref<'a, I: IntoIterator<Item = (&'a String, &'a String)>>(input: I) {
let mut c = 0;
for _ in input {
c += 1;
}
println!("{}", c);
}
fn get<'a, I: Index<&'a String, Output = String>>(table: &I, k: &'a String) {
println!("{}", table[k]);
}
fn main() {
let mut h = HashMap::<String, String>::new();
h.insert("one".to_owned(), "1".to_owned());
h.insert("two".to_owned(), "2".to_owned());
h.insert("three".to_owned(), "3".to_owned());
foo_ref(&h);
get(&h, &"two".to_owned());
}
Edit
I changed the value type to everything implements the IntoIterator trait :
use std::ops::Index;
use std::iter::IntoIterator;
use std::collections::HashMap;
use std::collections::LinkedList;
fn foo_ref<'a, B, I, >(input: I)
where B : IntoIterator<Item = String>, I: IntoIterator<Item = (&'a String, &'a B)> {
//
}
fn get<'a, B, I>(table: &I, k: &'a String)
where B : IntoIterator<Item = String>, I: Index<&'a String, Output = B>
{
// do something with table[k];
}
fn main() {
let mut h1 = HashMap::<String, Vec<String>>::new();
let mut h2 = HashMap::<String, LinkedList<String>>::new();
foo_ref(&h1);
get(&h1, &"two".to_owned());
foo_ref(&h2);
get(&h2, &"two".to_owned());
}