Options in Rust

In this blog post, we're going to see how to work with Options in Rust

Options

Since Rust doesn't support Nulls instead it has Optional value. Option is an Enum type which has 2 variants such as Some and None

Use cases

Following are some of the use cases with Option in Rust

Variable Initiation
Function return values
Return values for otherwise reporting simple errors
Optional struct fields
Optional functional arguments

Variable Initiation

    // Declaring variable with None
    let a: Option<i32> = None;

    // Declaring variable with Some(100)
    let b: Option<i32> = Some(100);

Extracting Values from Option

Extracting values from Option can be done using various ways

if-let statement

    if let Some(x) = a {
        println!("Value of variable a => {x}");
    }

match expression

    match b {
        Some(x) => println!("Value of variable b => {x}"),
        None => println!("Value of variable b => None"),
    }

expect method

expect method panics with a provided custom message when the variable is of None variant

    println!("Value of variable a => {}", b.expect("Variable cannot be empty"));

unwrap method

unwrap method panics with a generic message when the variable is of None variant

    println!("Value of variable a => {}", b.unwrap());

unwrap_or method

unwrap_or method returns value of variable OR specified value

    println!("Value of variable a => {}", a.unwrap_or(0));

unwrap_or_default method

unwrap_or_default method returns value of variable OR default value of underlying type

    println!("Value of variable a => {}", a.unwrap_or_default());

unwrap_or_else method

unwrap_or_else method returns value of variable OR returns the value of the function argument

    println!("Value of variable a => {}", a.unwrap_or_else(|| 10));

Comparing Option Variables

It is possible to compare 2 option variables in Rust

    if a > b {
        println!("Variable value a is greater than value of variable b");
    } else {
        println!("Variable value a is less than value of variable b");
    }

Iterating over Option

An Option can be iterated over. It is possible to call FromIterator trait's method on an Option. In case if an Option array contains None, the resulted operation would be None as well.

In this below example, we're creating an Option array having mixed of Some and None variants

  let o_arr = [Some(10), Some(20), None, Some(30)];

Collecting elements from an Option array

We'll apply FromIterator trait's into_iter method and call collect method on it. This will result in None variant

    let result_1: Option<Vec<i32>> = o_arr.into_iter().collect();
    println!("Collect the elements => {result_1:?}");

Filter Option array and collect elements

We'll apply FromIterator trait's filter method and call collect method on it. This time, the result will be Some<Vec<i32>>

    let result_2: Option<Vec<i32>> = o_arr.into_iter().filter(|x| x.is_some()).collect();
    println!("Filter & collect the elements => {result_2:?}");

Sum method on an Option array

We'll apply FromIterator trait's sum method and as it is having None variant, the result will be of None variant

    let result_3: Option<i32> = o_arr.into_iter().sum();
    println!("Sum of all elements without filter => {result_3:?}");

Product method on an Option array

We'll apply FromIterator trait's product method and as it is having None variant, the result will be of None variant

    let result_4: Option<i32> = o_arr.into_iter().product();
    println!("Product of all elements without filter => {result_4:?}");

Filter & Sum method on an Option array

Filter the option array and then call FromIterator trait's sum method. The result will be of Some<i32> variant

    let result_3: Option<i32> = o_arr.into_iter().filter(|x| x.is_some()).sum();
    println!("Sum of all elements after filter => {result_3:?}");

Filter & Product method on an Option array

Filter the option array and then call FromIterator trait's product method. The result will be of Some<i32> variant

    let result_4: Option<i32> = o_arr.into_iter().filter(|x| x.is_some()).product();
    println!("Product of all elements after filter => {result_4:?}");

I hope this blog post gives you a brief overview about Options.

All the code examples can be found in this link.

Please feel free to share your feedback.

Happy reading!!!