Merge pull request #1250 from adamchalmers/option-question-mark

Fix #1110: add examples of ? and Option

src/SUMMARY.md

@@ -150,6 +150,7 @@
 - [Error handling](error.md)
     - [`panic`](error/panic.md)
     - [`Option` & `unwrap`](error/option_unwrap.md)
+        - [Unpacking options with ?](error/option_unwrap/question_mark.md)
         - [Combinators: `map`](error/option_unwrap/map.md)
         - [Combinators: `and_then`](error/option_unwrap/and_then.md)
     - [`Result`](error/result.md)

src/error/option_unwrap/question_mark.md

@@ -0,0 +1,55 @@
+# Unpacking options with ?
+
+You can unpack Options by using `match` statements, but it's often easier to use the `?` operator. If `x` is an `Option`, then evaluating `x?` will return the underlying value if `x` is Some, otherwise it will terminate whatever function is being executed and return `None`. 
+
+```rust,editable
+fn next_birthday(current_age: Option<u8>) -> Option<String> {
+	// If `current_age` is None, this returns None.
+	// If `current_age` is Some, the inner u8 gets assigned to `next_age`
+    let next_age: u8 = current_age?;
+    Some(format!("Next year I will be {}", next_age))
+}
+```
+
+You can chain many ?s together to make your code much more readable.
+
+```rust,editable
+struct Person {
+    job: Option<Job>,
+}
+
+#[derive(Clone, Copy)]
+struct Job {
+    phone_number: Option<PhoneNumber>,
+}
+
+#[derive(Clone, Copy)]
+struct PhoneNumber {
+    area_code: Option<u8>,
+    number: u32,
+}
+
+impl Person {
+    
+    // Gets the area code of the phone number of the person's job, if it exists.
+    fn work_phone_area_code(&self) -> Option<u8> {
+        // This would need many nested `match` statements without the ? operator.
+        // It would take a lot more code - try writing it yourself and see which
+        // is easier.
+        self.job?.phone_number?.area_code
+    }
+}
+
+fn main() {
+    let p = Person {
+        job: Some(Job {
+            phone_number: Some(PhoneNumber {
+                area_code: Some(61),
+                number: 439222222,
+            }),
+        }),
+    };
+
+    assert_eq!(p.work_phone_area_code(), Some(61));
+}
+```