How to test for equality between trait objects?

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Here is the definition of the PartialEq trait:

pub trait PartialEq<Rhs = Self> 
where
    Rhs: ?Sized, 
{
    fn eq(&self, other: &Rhs) -> bool;

    fn ne(&self, other: &Rhs) -> bool { ... }
}

Note the Self parameter type. This means that eq() and ne() methods accept a parameter of the same type as implementor. For example:

impl PartialEq for i32 {
    fn eq(&self, other: &i32) -> bool { ... }
}

impl PartialEq for String {
    fn eq(&self, other: &String) -> bool { ... }
}

Note how type of other changes to reflect the type PartialEq is implemented for.

This is the problem. In trait objects, the actual type is erased and unavailable at runtime. This means that it is impossible to obtain a reference to a concrete type from a trait object; in particular, you can’t go from &A to &T in your example.

This means that it is impossible to call methods accepting or returning the Self type on trait objects. Indeed, these methods always require a concrete type, but if you have only a trait object, there is no concrete type, and there is no way such method could work in any sensible way.

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