[erlang-questions] When to return {ok, Value} or just the Value

[David Mercer]

Why is your second alternative (viz., "f(X) -> Y | exit(..)") not the
default preferred option for all Erlang code?  It seems to express your
meaning and intent better than a tuple return code.  You can always wrap it
in a try if you want to catch the error.

 

Me, I always have trouble deciding between exit(.) and error(.).

 

Cheers,

 

DBM

 

From: erlang-questions-bounces@REDACTED
[mailto:erlang-questions-bounces@REDACTED] On Behalf Of Joe Armstrong
Sent: Monday, November 14, 2011 5:25 AM
To: Steve Davis
Cc: erlang-questions@REDACTED
Subject: Re: [erlang-questions] When to return {ok, Value} or just the Value

 

You have several alternatives

      f(X) -> Y                  uses if you know computing f(X) always
returns Y for all X

      f(X) -> Y | exit(..)     if "most" values of f(X) are valid and you
could not take care of the
                                     error case in the caller

      f(X) -> {ok, Y} | {error, Z}   if some values of X cause f(X) to fail
and you want to take care
                                                of the error in the caller.

      returning {ok, Y} | {error,Z} is a strong signal to the person reading
the code that the caller will
      do something with *both* return values.

      The caller might just write {ok,Val} = f(X) and not handle the error
case, but the reader of the
code will think - "ahh something might go wrong, and this code may need to
be fixed later."
it's not just what you write but what will be inferred by the reader.

      Code using {ok, Val} | {error, Why} tends to lead to messy cascades of
nested cases, so the
      Y | exit(...) code style looks prettier.

      The entire picture gets complicated sing catch/throw/try etc. so there
is no "right" answer.

      I guess you should choose be locally consistent in your code - choose
a convention and stick to it
in your code and chose the variant that will be easiest to read and
maintain. If you end up with
loads of nested cases/trys you might have chosen the wrong convention.

Cheers

/Joe
                                          




On Sun, Nov 13, 2011 at 1:35 AM, Steve Davis
<steven.charles.davis@REDACTED> wrote:

Is there a rule-of-thumb guidance as to when it is the right "time" to
return {ok, Value} and when to return just the raw value.

Both are valid approaches according to the coding guidelines. The
libraries do both.

All and any comments/observations appreciated.

best,
/s
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