? - Rust By Example
Description: A description

# `?`

Chaining results using match can get pretty untidy; luckily, the `?` operator can be used to make things pretty again. `?` is used at the end of an expression returning a `Result`, and is equivalent to a match expression, where the `Err(err)` branch expands to an early `Err(From::from(err))`, and the `Ok(ok)` branch expands to an `ok` expression.

    mod checked {
        #[derive(Debug)]
        enum MathError {
            DivisionByZero,
            NonPositiveLogarithm,
            NegativeSquareRoot,
        }

        type MathResult = Result<f64, MathError>;

        fn div(x: f64, y: f64) -> MathResult {
            if y == 0.0 {
                Err(MathError::DivisionByZero)
            } else {
                Ok(x / y)
            }
        }

        fn sqrt(x: f64) -> MathResult {
            if x < 0.0 {
                Err(MathError::NegativeSquareRoot)
            } else {
                Ok(x.sqrt())
            }
        }

        fn ln(x: f64) -> MathResult {
            if x <= 0.0 {
                Err(MathError::NonPositiveLogarithm)
            } else {
                Ok(x.ln())
            }
        }

        // Intermediate function
        fn op_(x: f64, y: f64) -> MathResult {
            // if `div` "fails", then `DivisionByZero` will be `return`ed
            let ratio = div(x, y)?;

            // if `ln` "fails", then `NonPositiveLogarithm` will be `return`ed
            let ln = ln(ratio)?;

            sqrt(ln)
        }

        pub fn op(x: f64, y: f64) {
            match op_(x, y) {
                Err(why) => panic!(match why {
                    MathError::NonPositiveLogarithm
                        => "logarithm of non-positive number",
                    MathError::DivisionByZero
                        => "division by zero",
                    MathError::NegativeSquareRoot
                        => "square root of negative number",
                }),
                Ok(value) => println!("{}", value),
            }
        }
    }

    fn main() {
        checked::op(1.0, 10.0);
    }

Be sure to check the documentation, as there are many methods to map/compose `Result`.