Dynamic Error Types
Sometimes we want to allow any type of error to be returned without writing our own enum covering
all the different possibilities. std::error::Error makes this easy.
use std::fs::{self, File};use std::io::Read;use thiserror::Error;use std::error::Error;#[derive(Clone, Debug, Eq, Error, PartialEq)]#[error("Found no username in {0}")]struct EmptyUsernameError(String);fn read_username(path: &str) -> Result<String, Box<dyn Error>> {let mut username = String::with_capacity(100);File::open(path)?.read_to_string(&mut username)?;if username.is_empty() {return Err(EmptyUsernameError(String::from(path)).into());}Ok(username)}fn main() {//fs::write("config.dat", "").unwrap();match read_username("config.dat") {Ok(username) => println!("Username: {username}"),Err(err) => println!("Error: {err}"),}}
Speaker Notes
This saves on code, but gives up the ability to cleanly handle different error cases differently in
the program. As such itβs generally not a good idea to use Box<dyn Error> in the public API of a
library, but it can be a good option in a program where you just want to display the error message
somewhere.