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19 Std library types

19.5 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:

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));
}
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