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Remove inverse example from generics part of TRPL
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steveklabnik committed Apr 20, 2015
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85 changes: 0 additions & 85 deletions src/doc/trpl/generics.md
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Expand Up @@ -90,88 +90,3 @@ if we wanted to. Convention says that the first generic parameter should be

The `Result<T, E>` type is intended to be used to return the result of a
computation, and to have the ability to return an error if it didn't work out.
Here's an example:

```{rust}
let x: Result<f64, String> = Ok(2.3f64);
let y: Result<f64, String> = Err("There was an error.".to_string());
```

This particular Result will return an `f64` if there's a success, and a
`String` if there's a failure. Let's write a function that uses `Result<T, E>`:

```{rust}
fn inverse(x: f64) -> Result<f64, String> {
if x == 0.0f64 { return Err("x cannot be zero!".to_string()); }
Ok(1.0f64 / x)
}
```

We don't want to take the inverse of zero, so we check to make sure that we
weren't passed zero. If we were, then we return an `Err`, with a message. If
it's okay, we return an `Ok`, with the answer.

Why does this matter? Well, remember how `match` does exhaustive matches?
Here's how this function gets used:

```{rust}
# fn inverse(x: f64) -> Result<f64, String> {
# if x == 0.0f64 { return Err("x cannot be zero!".to_string()); }
# Ok(1.0f64 / x)
# }
let x = inverse(25.0f64);
match x {
Ok(x) => println!("The inverse of 25 is {}", x),
Err(msg) => println!("Error: {}", msg),
}
```

The `match` enforces that we handle the `Err` case. In addition, because the
answer is wrapped up in an `Ok`, we can't just use the result without doing
the match:

```{rust,ignore}
let x = inverse(25.0f64);
println!("{}", x + 2.0f64); // error: binary operation `+` cannot be applied
// to type `core::result::Result<f64,collections::string::String>`
```

This function is great, but there's one other problem: it only works for 64 bit
floating point values. What if we wanted to handle 32 bit floating point as
well? We'd have to write this:

```{rust}
fn inverse32(x: f32) -> Result<f32, String> {
if x == 0.0f32 { return Err("x cannot be zero!".to_string()); }
Ok(1.0f32 / x)
}
```

Bummer. What we need is a *generic function*. Luckily, we can write one!
However, it won't _quite_ work yet. Before we get into that, let's talk syntax.
A generic version of `inverse` would look something like this:

```{rust,ignore}
fn inverse<T>(x: T) -> Result<T, String> {
if x == 0.0 { return Err("x cannot be zero!".to_string()); }
Ok(1.0 / x)
}
```

Just like how we had `Option<T>`, we use a similar syntax for `inverse<T>`.
We can then use `T` inside the rest of the signature: `x` has type `T`, and half
of the `Result` has type `T`. However, if we try to compile that example, we'll get
an error:

```text
error: binary operation `==` cannot be applied to type `T`
```

Because `T` can be _any_ type, it may be a type that doesn't implement `==`,
and therefore, the first line would be wrong. What do we do?

To fix this example, we need to learn about another Rust feature: traits.

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