Handling different error types

[underthetabledowg]

We all know that rust doesn't have a try function. In python, there's only one and know as the best way to handle specific error types:

try:
    # do something that may fail
except IDontLikeYouException:
    # say please
except YouAreTooShortException:
    # stand on a ladder

But how can we do it in rust? I know we can do something like:

(inside a match)
Ok(x) => { },
Err(e) => match e.kind() {
    Error => break,
    AnotherError => do_something(),
    _ => panic!("..."),
},

But I feel confused as there's not a way that is seen by the community as a pattern, and if it does, I don't know, and that's what I'm looking for here. Does anyone know what would be the most accepted code for that?

[jumpnbrownweasel]

@underthetabledowg

the best way to handle specific error types

Matching is definitely the best way to take different actions when different errors occur. For more on error handling see:

https://doc.rust-lang.org/book/ch09-00-error-handling.html

https://doc.rust-lang.org/rust-by-example/error.html

[cod10129]

In the common case of:

let foo = match fallible_call() {
    Ok(x) => x,
    Err(e) => return Err(e)
};

There's shorthand in the form of ?, where expr? expands to

match expr {
    Ok(x) => x,
    Err(e) => return Err(e.into())
}

^[1]

---

1. modulo some details about name disambiguation and Try ↩︎

[ashkrisk]

You may be looking for something like this, where the error type is an enum of all possible sub-errors. In this case a match statement is quite natural

Rust Playground

enum MyError {
    IDontLikeYouException,
    YouAreTooShortException,
}

use MyError::*;

fn something_that_may_fail(x: u8) -> Result<(), MyError> {
    match x {
        0 => Err(IDontLikeYouException),
        _ => Err(YouAreTooShortException),
    }
}

fn main() {
    match something_that_may_fail(1) {
        Ok(()) => println!("how did this succeed"),
        Err(IDontLikeYouException) => println!("I don't like you"),
        Err(YouAreTooShortException) => println!("You are too short"),
    }
}

Alternatively if you're dealing with dynamic error types, you can try downcasting to get the underlying type. In this case, the function needs to return something like Result<T, Box<dyn std::error::Error>>. This is a bit closer to Python exceptions, but in Rust the first style is obviously better if you know all your Error types beforehand.

Rust Playground

// define IDontLikeYouException and YouAreTooShortException
// as structs implementing std::error::Error

fn something_that_may_fail(x: u8) -> Result<(), Box<dyn std::error::Error>> {
    match x {
        0 => Err(Box::new(IDontLikeYouException{})),
        _ => Err(Box::new(YouAreTooShortException{})),
    }
}

fn main() {
    match something_that_may_fail(0) {
        Ok(()) => println!("how did this succeed"),
        Err(e) => {
            if let Some(_) = e.downcast_ref::<IDontLikeYouException>() {
                println!("I don't like you");
            } else if let Some(_) = e.downcast_ref::<YouAreTooShortException>() {
                println!("You are too short");
            } else {
                println!("Unknown error");
            }
        }
    }
}