Boxing errors - Rust By Example
Description: A description

# `Box`ing errors

A way to write simple code while preserving the original errors is to `Box` them. The drawback is that the underlying error type is only known at runtime and not statically determined.

The stdlib helps in boxing our errors by having `Box` implement conversion from any type that implements the `Error` trait into the trait object `Box<Error>`, via `From`.

    use std::error;
    use std::fmt;

    // Change the alias to `Box<error::Error>`.
    type Result<T> = std::result::Result<T, Box<error::Error>>;

    #[derive(Debug, Clone)]
    struct EmptyVec;

    impl fmt::Display for EmptyVec {
        fn fmt(&self, f: &mut fmt::Formatter) -> fmt::Result {
            write!(f, "invalid first item to double")
        }
    }

    impl error::Error for EmptyVec {
        fn description(&self) -> &str {
            "invalid first item to double"
        }

        fn cause(&self) -> Option<&error::Error> {
            // Generic error, underlying cause isn't tracked.
            None
        }
    }

    fn double_first(vec: Vec<&str>) -> Result<i32> {
        vec.first()
            .ok_or_else(|| EmptyVec.into()) // Converts to Box
            .and_then(|s| {
                s.parse::<i32>()
                    .map_err(|e| e.into()) // Converts to Box
                    .map(|i| 2 * i)
            })
    }

    fn print(result: Result<i32>) {
        match result {
            Ok(n) => println!("The first doubled is {}", n),
            Err(e) => println!("Error: {}", e),
        }
    }

    fn main() {
        let numbers = vec!["42", "93", "18"];
        let empty = vec![];
        let strings = vec!["tofu", "93", "18"];

        print(double_first(numbers));
        print(double_first(empty));
        print(double_first(strings));
    }

### See also:

Dynamic dispatch and `Error` trait