Result
Result
is similar to Option
, but indicates the success or failure of an operation, each with a different enum variant. It is generic: Result<T, E>
where T
is used in the Ok
variant and E
appears in the Err
variant.
use std::fs::File; use std::io::Read; fn main() { let file: Result<File, std::io::Error> = File::open("diary.txt"); match file { Ok(mut file) => { let mut contents = String::new(); if let Ok(bytes) = file.read_to_string(&mut contents) { println!("Dear diary: {contents} ({bytes} bytes)"); } else { println!("Could not read file content"); } } Err(err) => { println!("The diary could not be opened: {err}"); } } }
This slide should take about 5 minutes.
- As with
Option
, the successful value sits inside ofResult
, forcing the developer to explicitly extract it. This encourages error checking. In the case where an error should never happen,unwrap()
orexpect()
can be called, and this is a signal of the developer intent too. Result
documentation is a recommended read. Not during the course, but it is worth mentioning. It contains a lot of convenience methods and functions that help functional-style programming.Result
is the standard type to implement error handling as we will see on Day 4.