The Result docs give the following explanation for the .or_else() method:
fn or_else<F, O: FnOnce(E) -> Result<T, F>>(self, op: O) -> Result<T, F>
Calls op if the result is Err, otherwise returns the Ok value of self.
This function can be used for control flow based on result values.
Examples
fn sq(x: u32) -> Result<u32, u32> { Ok(x * x) }
fn err(x: u32) -> Result<u32, u32> { Err(x) }
assert_eq!(Ok(2).or_else(sq).or_else(sq), Ok(2));
assert_eq!(Ok(2).or_else(err).or_else(sq), Ok(2));
assert_eq!(Err(3).or_else(sq).or_else(err), Ok(9));
assert_eq!(Err(3).or_else(err).or_else(err), Err(3));
I think can parse the or_else type annotation with more whitespace:
fn or_else<F, // F being the return type of the Result?
O: FnOnce(E) -> Result<T, F> // the function to run instead if error
>
(self, op: O) // arguments to the `.or_else()` method
-> Result<T, F> // return type is again Result
Assuming I've got that right, does that mean .or_else() simply gives you a Result with the Error replaced with the return value of the op function?
I can understand returning a Result yet again, since all code downstream of possibly error-throwing code is "stained" with the possibility of further errors (and it's up to the caller to handle that). But why the doubled calls in the examples? There are a couple different permutations, but I'm not sure what they're trying to show (or if that doubled or_else() pattern is idiomatic).
The example may be a bit unfortunate, because it tries to show at the same time how does or_else work, and why would you use it.
To split it into two parts. First what does or_else actually do. If you get call it on Ok value, it passes the Ok value. If you call it on Err value, it executes the function. This example should be enough:
Ok(2).or_else(sq), Ok(2) // not called
Ok(2).or_else(err), Ok(2) // not called
Err(2).or_else(sq), Ok(4) // called, succeeds
Err(2).or_else(err), Err(3) // called, fails
Now, the why would you use it part. Imagine you're doing some operation which has many alternative approaches. For example you're trying to install some package on linux, but don't care which package manager is available - you're just going to brute-force it. With all the functions returning Result<...> you could do this:
install_with_apt().
or_else(install_with_yum).
or_else(install_with_pacman).
or_else(install_with_dnf).
or_else...
You'll know that if you got back Ok, at least one of those succeeded and if you get back Err all of them failed. The doubled .or_else() usage in the example if likely just trying to show you can easily chain this call.
Related
We have an API service call that returns a bunch of validation messages. In each message there is a string that contains an error code.
Our implementation converts the validation string into an enum value and then we process the enumeration as there are some error code we just don't care about.
The question becomes, how to handle the loop of messages in a Kotlin way:
response.validationErrors?.forEach {
val mediaFailure = decodeValidationMessage(it.message)
if (mediaFailure != MediaFailure.Unknown) {
return when (mediaFailure) {
MediaFailure.Encrypted -> DomainResponse(ErrorReasonCode.ERR_DOCUMENT_ENCRYPTED)
MediaFailure.NotSupported -> Response.validationFailed()
MediaFailure.InternalError -> Response.serviceFailed()
else -> throw NotImplementedError()
}
}
}
Here we loop through all the messages, then once the message error is not "Unknown" it returns the necessary response to the caller.
However, IntelliJ wants the else path, even though the if prevents that from happening.
Is there a proper Kotlin way of implementing this kind of loop?
From what I understood, you want to return a response for the first mediaFailure which is not MediaFailure.Unknown and you don't want that throw NotImplementedError() part in your function.
One way to fix this is to remove the if condition and continue the forEach loop when MediaFailure.Unknown is found.
response.validationErrors?.forEach {
val mediaFailure = decodeValidationMessage(it.message)
return when (mediaFailure) {
MediaFailure.Encrypted -> DomainResponse(ErrorReasonCode.ERR_DOCUMENT_ENCRYPTED)
MediaFailure.NotSupported -> Response.validationFailed()
MediaFailure.InternalError -> Response.serviceFailed()
MediaFailure.Unknown -> return#forEach // continue the loop
}
}
I think this is one of the many cases when it pays to step back from the code a bit and try to look at the big picture. To ask “What's the ultimate goal here? What am I trying to achieve with this code?”
(In traditional, lower-level languages, almost anything you want to do with a list or array requires a loop, so you get into the habit of reaching for a for or while without thinking. But there are often alternative approaches in Kotlin that can be more concise, clearer, and harder to get wrong. They tend to be more about what you're trying to achieve, rather than how.)
In this case, it looks you want to find the first item which decodes to give a known type (i.e. not MediaFailure.Unknown), and return a value derived from that.
So here's an attempt to code that:
val message = response.validationErrors?.asSequence()
?.map{ decodeValidationMessage(it.message) }
?.firstOrNull{ it != MediaFailure.Unknown }
return when (message) {
MediaFailure.Encrypted -> DomainResponse(ErrorReasonCode.ERR_DOCUMENT_ENCRYPTED)
MediaFailure.NotSupported -> Response.validationFailed()
MediaFailure.InternalError, null -> Response.serviceFailed()
else -> throw NotImplementedError()
}
This is still fairly similar to your code, and it's about as efficient. (Thanks to the asSequence(), it doesn't decode any more messages than it needs to.) But the firstOrNull() makes clear what you're looking for; and it's obvious that you go on to process only that one message — a fact which is rather lost in the original version.
(If there are no valid messages, message will be null and so this will return serviceFailed(), as per comments.)
There are of course many ways to skin a cat, and I can think of several variations. (It's often a worthwhile exercise to come up with some — if nothing else, it gives you more confidence in the version you end up with!) Try to pick whichever seems clearest, simplest, and best matches the big picture of what you're doing; that tends to work out best in the long run.
I'm pretty new with Kotlin and I'm trying to figure out Kotlin's scope functions.
My code looks like this:
with(something) {
when {
equals("test") -> var1 = "test123"
startsWith("test2") -> var2 = "test456"
contains("test3") -> myNullableVar?.let { it.var3 = "test789" }
}
}
So before I entered the third check with the .let function my with function does not need to be exhaustive (I'm not returning something, I'm only doing assignments). In my third check I'm using .let as a null-check ... but only for an assignment of it.var3 (if it is not null). I don't need to return anything while I know that Kotlin's .let function returns the result of the body by standard.
Nevertheless now my with/when needs to be exhaustive otherwise it won't compile anymore.
This got me thinking and trying out different things. I found these ways to solve this issue:
I can add an else to my with/when so it becomes exhaustive but actually I don't need an else and I don't want to use it in this case.
I can add another .let, so it looks like this: myNullableVar?.let { it.var3 = "test789" }.let{} .... but this looks kinda hacky to me. Is it supposed to work like this?
Use If(xy==null){...}else{...} stuff but I thought I can solve this with Kotlin differently
Because I'm new with Kotlin I'm not really sure how to handle this case properly. I would probably just go with my second idea because "it works". Or should I don't use .let for null-checks? Add another empty .let{}? Or did I not get the null-safety concept at all? I feel a little bit lost here. Thanks for any help.
This seems to be an unfortunate combination of features…
A when can be non-exhaustive only when it doesn't return a value. The problem is that the with() function does return a value. And since the when is at the bottom, its value is what gets returned, so in this case it must be exhaustive.
So why doesn't it insist on an else branch even if you omit the "test3" branch? That's because assignments don't yield a value. (They evaluate to Unit, which is Kotlin's special type for functions that don't return a useful value.) If every branch gives Unit, then Kotlin seems* to be happy to infer a default branch also giving Unit.
But the "test3" branch returns something else — the type of myNullableVar. So what type does the when infer? The nearest common supertype of that type and Unit, which is the top type Any?. And now it needs an explicit else branch!
So what to do?
You've found a few options, none of which is ideal. So here are a few more, ditto!
You could return an explicit Unit from that branch:
contains("test3") -> { myNullableVar?.let { it.var3 = "test789" }; Unit }
You could return an explicit Unit from the with():
contains("test3") -> myNullableVar?.let { it.var3 = "test789" }
}
Unit
}
You could give an explicit type for the with(). (It has two type parameters, so you'd need to give both, starting with the type of its parameter):
with<String, Unit>("abc") {
I haven't found a single obvious best answer, I'm afraid…
And to answer your last question: yes, ?.let{ is perfectly idiomatic and common for null checks. In this particular case, replacing it with an if happens to solve the type problem:
contains("test3") -> { if (myNullableVar != null) myNullableVar.var3 = "test789" }
But as well as being long-winded, if myNullableVar is a property and not a local variable, then it opens up a race condition (what if another thread sets it to null in between the test and the assignment?) so the compiler would complain — which is exactly why people use let instead!
(* I can't find a reference for this behaviour. Is there an official word on it?)
I'm new to Kotlin and while trying the programs when I included functions with Unit return type it showed kotlin.Unit after completion of execution.
Being main function has Unit return type too why it doesn't show kotlin.Unit after execution?
a
b
c
Process finished with exit code 0
This was the output I got for simple program without any other functions
First, please do not upload images of code/errors when asking a question..
But to answer your question: Kotlin is printing the Unit result of calling your function because you're telling it to:
print(compare(a, b))
There's almost never a need to print Unitor manipulate it in any way, but that's perfectly legal to do. And since your main() function also returns Unit, you could print that out too if you wanted (and were calling that from another function). But why would you want to?
Either remove the print(), and simply call compare(a, b) on its own; or change compare() to return a value that you do want to print!
I'm trying to handle CompletableFuture exceptions in Kotlin, but I'm not able to figure out how to supply the appropriate parameters. So, for example, I have:
CompletableFuture.runAsync { "sr" }
.exceptionally{e -> {}}
but then the compiler complains Cannot infer type parameter T.
How do I fix this?
Quite a tricky case which becomes tricky because of some Kotlin magic :)
The direct solution to your problem would be the following code:
CompletableFuture.runAsync {"sr"}
.exceptionally({e -> null})
The detailed explanation goes here:
The runAsync method accepts a Runnable which means after execution it will return Void. The function passed to exceptionally method must match the generic parameter of the CompletableFuture so in this particular case, you need to help a compiler by returning null explicitly.
So the following will compile without problems:
CompletableFuture.runAsync {"sr"}
.exceptionally({null})
CompletableFuture.runAsync {}
.exceptionally({null})
In the first case, the "sr" String will simply be ignored and not returned since the runAsync accepts a Runnable.
You probably wanted to do something like:
CompletableFuture.supplyAsync {"sr"}
.exceptionally({"sr_exceptional"})
or:
CompletableFuture.supplyAsync {"sr"}
.exceptionally({e -> "sr_exceptional"})
I noticed that Rust does not have exceptions. How to do error handling in Rust and what are the common pitfalls? Are there ways to control flow with raise, catch, reraise and other stuff? I found inconsistent information on this.
Rust generally solves errors in two ways:
Unrecoverable errors. Once you panic!, that's it. Your program or thread aborts because it encounters something it can't solve and its invariants have been violated. E.g. if you find invalid sequences in what should be a UTF-8 string.
Recoverable errors. Also called failures in some documentation. Instead of panicking, you emit a Option<T> or Result<T, E>. In these cases, you have a choice between a valid value Some(T)/Ok(T) respectively or an invalid value None/Error(E). Generally None serves as a null replacement, showing that the value is missing.
Now comes the hard part. Application.
Unwrap
Sometimes dealing with an Option is a pain in the neck, and you are almost guaranteed to get a value and not an error.
In those cases it's perfectly fine to use unwrap. unwrap turns Some(e) and Ok(e) into e, otherwise it panics. Unwrap is a tool to turn your recoverable errors into unrecoverable.
if x.is_some() {
y = x.unwrap(); // perfectly safe, you just checked x is Some
}
Inside the if-block it's perfectly fine to unwrap since it should never panic because we've already checked that it is Some with x.is_some().
If you're writing a library, using unwrap is discouraged because when it panics the user cannot handle the error. Additionally, a future update may change the invariant. Imagine if the example above had if x.is_some() || always_return_true(). The invariant would changed, and unwrap could panic.
? operator / try! macro
What's the ? operator or the try! macro? A short explanation is that it either returns the value inside an Ok() or prematurely returns error.
Here is a simplified definition of what the operator or macro expand to:
macro_rules! try {
($e:expr) => (match $e {
Ok(val) => val,
Err(err) => return Err(err),
});
}
If you use it like this:
let x = File::create("my_file.txt")?;
let x = try!(File::create("my_file.txt"));
It will convert it into this:
let x = match File::create("my_file.txt") {
Ok(val) => val,
Err(err) => return Err(err),
};
The downside is that your functions now return Result.
Combinators
Option and Result have some convenience methods that allow chaining and dealing with errors in an understandable manner. Methods like and, and_then, or, or_else, ok_or, map_err, etc.
For example, you could have a default value in case your value is botched.
let x: Option<i32> = None;
let guaranteed_value = x.or(Some(3)); //it's Some(3)
Or if you want to turn your Option into a Result.
let x = Some("foo");
assert_eq!(x.ok_or("No value found"), Ok("foo"));
let x: Option<&str> = None;
assert_eq!(x.ok_or("No value found"), Err("No value found"));
This is just a brief skim of things you can do. For more explanation, check out:
http://blog.burntsushi.net/rust-error-handling/
https://doc.rust-lang.org/book/ch09-00-error-handling.html
http://lucumr.pocoo.org/2014/10/16/on-error-handling/
If you need to terminate some independent execution unit (a web request, a video frame processing, a GUI event, a source file to compile) but not all your application in completeness, there is a function std::panic::catch_unwind that invokes a closure, capturing the cause of an unwinding panic if one occurs.
let result = panic::catch_unwind(|| {
panic!("oh no!");
});
assert!(result.is_err());
I would not grant this closure write access to any variables that could outlive it, or any other otherwise global state.
The documentation also says the function also may not be able to catch some kinds of panic.