---
title: "What is a Rust crate and how do you use external libraries in Rust?"  
description: "What is a Rust crate and how do you use external libraries in Rust?"  
author: "Steilla Mitchel"  
published: 2023-07-10  
updated: 2023-07-11  
canonical: https://www.mindstick.com/forum/159015/what-is-a-rust-crate-and-how-do-you-use-external-libraries-in-rust  
category: "rust"  
tags: ["api(s)", "rust"]  
reading_time: 2 minutes  

---

# What is a Rust crate and how do you use external libraries in Rust?

What is a [Rust](https://www.mindstick.com/forum/160170/explain-rust-s-ownership-borrowing-and-lifetimes-system) crate and how do you use [external](https://www.mindstick.com/articles/12810/how-to-connect-tablet-to-external-monitor-or-flat-screen-tv-using-computer-adapters) [libraries](https://answers.mindstick.com/qa/49244/which-company-is-ahead-in-classification-of-data-for-libraries-innovations) in Rust?

## Replies

### Reply by Aryan Kumar

A Rust crate is a collection of Rust source code and associated metadata. Crates are the basic unit of distribution and reuse in Rust.

To use an external library in Rust, you need to add it as a dependency to your project. You can do this by adding the library's name and version to your project's Cargo.toml file.

For example, to add the `serde` library to your project, you would add the following line to your Cargo.toml file:

Code snippet

```plaintext
[dependencies]
serde = "1.0.130"
```

Once you have added the library as a dependency, you can use it in your code by importing it. For example, to use the `serde` library to serialize a value, you would use the following code:

Rust

```plaintext
use serde::Serialize;

struct MyStruct {
    name: String,
}

impl Serialize for MyStruct {
    fn serialize<S>(&self, serializer: S) -> Result<S::Ok, S::Error>
    where
        S: Serializer,
    {
        serializer.serialize_str(&self.name)
    }
}

fn main() {
    let my_struct = MyStruct {
        name: "Rust".to_string(),
    };

    let serialized_struct = serde_json::to_string(&my_struct).unwrap();

    println!("{}", serialized_struct);
}
```

This code will serialize the `MyStruct` struct to JSON.


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Original Source: https://www.mindstick.com/forum/159015/what-is-a-rust-crate-and-how-do-you-use-external-libraries-in-rust

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