multi_bimap
August 10, 2026 · View on GitHub
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.