Result
We've seen that the Option
enum can be used as a return value from functions that may fail, where None
can be returned to indicate failure. However, sometimes it is important to express why an operation failed. To do this we have the Result
enum.
The Result<T, E>
enum has two variants:
Ok(value)
which indicates that the operation succeeded, and wraps the value
returned by the operation. (value
has type T
)
Err(why)
, which indicates that the operation failed, and wraps why
, which (hopefully) explains the cause of the failure. (why
has type E
)
mod checked {
// Mathematical "errors" we want to catch
#[derive(Debug)]
pub enum MathError {
DivisionByZero,
NonPositiveLogarithm,
NegativeSquareRoot,
}
pub type MathResult = Result<f64, MathError>;
pub fn div(x: f64, y: f64) -> MathResult {
if y == 0.0 {
// This operation would `fail`, instead let's return the reason of
// the failure wrapped in `Err`
Err(MathError::DivisionByZero)
} else {
// This operation is valid, return the result wrapped in `Ok`
Ok(x / y)
}
}
pub fn sqrt(x: f64) -> MathResult {
if x < 0.0 {
Err(MathError::NegativeSquareRoot)
} else {
Ok(x.sqrt())
}
}
pub fn ln(x: f64) -> MathResult {
if x <= 0.0 {
Err(MathError::NonPositiveLogarithm)
} else {
Ok(x.ln())
}
}
}
// `op(x, y)` === `sqrt(ln(x / y))`
fn op(x: f64, y: f64) -> f64 {
// This is a three level match pyramid!
match checked::div(x, y) {
Err(why) => panic!("{:?}", why),
Ok(ratio) => match checked::ln(ratio) {
Err(why) => panic!("{:?}", why),
Ok(ln) => match checked::sqrt(ln) {
Err(why) => panic!("{:?}", why),
Ok(sqrt) => sqrt,
},
},
}
}
fn main() {
// Will this fail?
println!("{}", op(1.0, 10.0));
}