multi_bimap

August 10, 2026 · View on GitHub

Repository Docs Crates.io MIT OR Apache 2.0

multi_bimap

Many-to-many bidirectional map in Rust.

This crate provides a MultiBimap struct, a bidirectional multimap that is implemented as two antiparallel multimaps that are kept in sync.

You can arbitrarily choose what should be the types of the constituent multimaps: for example, HashMap<&str, HashSet<&str>>, BTreeMap<i64, Vec<&str>>, indexmap::IndexMap<&str, Box<(i64, i64)> are all valid options.

Even better, these multimaps can have mixed types (e.g. HashMap of HashSets pointing rightwards, BTreeMap of Boxes pointing leftwards), so you can also have one-to-many or many-to-one bimaps as well (one-to-one bimap is obviously also an option). This is possible because MultiBimap uses traits from maplike, a Rust crate which allows to have a generic interface over a large number of containers.

This bidirectional multimap relation that MultiBimap models is also known under many other names: bi-multimap, multi-bimap, or sometimes even just bimap; in set theory, it's simply called a relation; in graph theory, it's the same as a bipartite graph.

This crate has no unsafe code and is compatible with serde and undoredo libraries. It is also no_std-compatible, though alloc is still required. There is no mandatory third-party dependencies, but there is a first-party dependency on maplike, a library also developed by this library's authors.

Usage

Adding dependency

First, add multi_bimap as a dependency to your Cargo.toml:

[dependencies]
multi_bimap = "0.5.0"

Examples

Many-to-many bidirectional map

In academic publishing, the relation between authors and academic papers is many-to-many; it is a bipartite graph: each author may have many papers, and each paper may have many authors. A MultiBimap (here under alias HashMultiBimap) can fully represent that:

use multi_bimap::HashMultiBimap;
use std::collections::HashSet;

fn main() {
    let mut authorship: HashMultiBimap<&str, &str> = HashMultiBimap::new();

    // `HashMultiBimap` is an alias for a multi-bimap made of two antiparallel hash
    // maps with hash sets as values. Without alias the above line would be this:

    /*let mut authorship: MultiBimap<
        HashMap<&str, HashSet<&str>>,
        HashMap<&str, HashSet<&str>>,
    > = MultiBimap::new();*/

    authorship.insert("Stefan Banach", "Sur les opérations dans les ensembles abstraits");
    authorship.insert("Stefan Banach", "Théorie des opérations linéaires");
    authorship.insert("Stefan Banach", "Sur le principe de la condensation des singularités");
    authorship.insert("Hugo Steinhaus", "Sur le principe de la condensation des singularités");

    // Papers where Stefan Banach is an author.
    assert_eq!(
        authorship.get_by_left("Stefan Banach"),
        Some(&HashSet::from([
            "Sur les opérations dans les ensembles abstraits",
            "Théorie des opérations linéaires",
            "Sur le principe de la condensation des singularités",
        ])),
    );

    // "Sur le principe de la condensation des singularités" has two authors; it was
    // co-authored by Stefan Banach and Hugo Steinhaus.
    assert_eq!(
        authorship.get_by_right("Sur le principe de la condensation des singularités"),
        Some(&HashSet::from(["Stefan Banach", "Hugo Steinhaus"])),
    );

    // As an example, remove one author-paper association, of Hugo Steinhaus with
    // this paper. Empty keys will disappear from both sides.
    assert_eq!(
        authorship.remove(
            &"Hugo Steinhaus",
            &"Sur le principe de la condensation des singularités",
        ),
        Some((
            "Hugo Steinhaus",
            "Sur le principe de la condensation des singularités",
        )),
    );
    assert_eq!(
        authorship.get_by_right("Sur le principe de la condensation des singularités"),
        Some(&HashSet::from(["Stefan Banach"])),
    );
    assert_eq!(authorship.get_by_left("Hugo Steinhaus"), None);

    // Restore Hugo Steinhaus as co-author.
    authorship.insert(
        "Hugo Steinhaus",
        "Sur le principe de la condensation des singularités",
    );
    assert_eq!(
        authorship.get_by_right("Sur le principe de la condensation des singularités"),
        Some(&HashSet::from(["Stefan Banach", "Hugo Steinhaus"])),
    );
    assert_eq!(
        authorship.get_by_left("Hugo Steinhaus"),
        Some(&HashSet::from([
            "Sur le principe de la condensation des singularités",
        ])),
    );
}

One-to-one bidirectional map

A country and its capital form a one-to-one relation: each country has one capital, and each capital belongs to one country. MultiBimap (here under alias HashBimap) can represent that just as well without any additional logic:

use maplike::one::One;
use multi_bimap::HashBimap;

fn main() {
    let mut capitals: HashBimap<&str, &str> = HashBimap::new();

    // `HashBimap` is an alias for a one-to-one bimap made of two antiparallel hash
    // maps with `One` as value type. `One` is a special container that can hold
    // only one element that gets displaced upon insert. Without alias the above
    // line would be this:

    /*let mut capitals: MultiBimap<
        HashMap<&str, One<&str>>,
        HashMap<&str, One<&str>>,
    > = MultiBimap::new();*/

    capitals.insert("Poland", "Warsaw");
    capitals.insert("France", "Paris");
    capitals.insert("Lithuania", "Vilnius");

    // Unfortunately, in 1920, Vilnius was annexed by Poland and held until 1939,
    // a regrettable episode in Polish history. During that period Lithuania's capital
    // was Kaunas.
    assert_eq!(
        capitals.insert("Lithuania", "Kaunas"),
        (Some("Vilnius"), None),
    );

    assert_eq!(capitals.get_by_left("Lithuania"), Some(&One::new("Kaunas")));

    // After Lithuania regained Vilnius in 1939, as a side effect of Nazi Germany's
    // and Soviet Union's joint invasion and annexation of Poland, it was restored
    // as Lithuania's capital.
    assert_eq!(
        capitals.insert("Lithuania", "Vilnius"),
        (Some("Kaunas"), None),
    );

    assert_eq!(capitals.get_by_left("Lithuania"), Some(&One::new("Vilnius")));
}

Documentation

See the documentation for more information on multi_bimap's usage.

Packaging

multi_bimap is published as a crate on the Crates.io registry.

Contributing

We welcome issues, pull requests and any other contributions from anyone to our repository on GitHub.

Licence

Outbound licence

multi_bimap is dual-licensed as under

at your option.

Inbound licence

Unless you explicitly state otherwise, any contribution intentionally submitted for inclusion in this work by you will be dual-licensed as described above, without any additional terms or conditions.