Result - Rust By Example
Description: A description

# `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));
    }