Propagating Errors with ?
The try-operator ?
is used to return errors to the caller. It lets you turn
the common
match some_expression {
Ok(value) => value,
Err(err) => return Err(err),
}
into the much simpler
some_expression?
We can use this to simplify our error handing code:
use std::fs;use std::io::{self, Read};fn read_username(path: &str) -> Result<String, io::Error> {let username_file_result = fs::File::open(path);let mut username_file = match username_file_result {Ok(file) => file,Err(e) => return Err(e),};let mut username = String::new();match username_file.read_to_string(&mut username) {Ok(_) => Ok(username),Err(e) => Err(e),}}fn main() {//fs::write("config.dat", "alice").unwrap();let username = read_username("config.dat");println!("username or error: {username:?}");}
Speaker Notes
Key points:
- The
username
variable can be eitherOk(string)
orErr(error)
. - Use the
fs::write
call to test out the different scenarios: no file, empty file, file with username.