@@ -1160,6 +1160,55 @@ Where a `StringResult` is either an `StringOK`, with the result of a computation
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` ErrorReason ` with a ` String ` explaining what caused the computation to fail. These kinds of
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` enum ` s are actually very useful and are even part of the standard library.
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+ Enum variants are namespaced under the enum names. For example, here is an example of using
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+ our ` StringResult ` :
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+
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+ ``` rust
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+ # enum StringResult {
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+ # StringOK (String ),
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+ # ErrorReason (String ),
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+ # }
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+ fn respond (greeting : & str ) -> StringResult {
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+ if greeting == " Hello" {
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+ StringResult :: StringOK (" Good morning!" . to_string ())
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+ } else {
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+ StringResult :: ErrorReason (" I didn't understand you!" . to_string ())
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+ }
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+ }
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+ ```
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+
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+ Notice that we need both the enum name and the variant name: ` StringResult::StringOK ` , but
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+ we didn't need to with ` Ordering ` , we just said ` Greater ` rather than ` Ordering::Greater ` .
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+ There's a reason: the Rust prelude imports the variants of ` Ordering ` as well as the enum
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+ itself. We can use the ` use ` keyword to do something similar with ` StringResult ` :
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+
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+ ``` rust
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+ use StringResult :: StringOK ;
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+ use StringResult :: ErrorReason ;
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+
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+ enum StringResult {
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+ StringOK (String ),
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+ ErrorReason (String ),
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+ }
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+
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+ # fn main () {}
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+
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+ fn respond (greeting : & str ) -> StringResult {
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+ if greeting == " Hello" {
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+ StringOK (" Good morning!" . to_string ())
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+ } else {
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+ ErrorReason (" I didn't understand you!" . to_string ())
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+ }
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+ }
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+ ```
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+
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+ We'll learn more about ` use ` later, but it's used to bring names into scope. ` use ` declarations
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+ must come before anything else, which looks a little strange in this example, since we ` use `
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+ the variants before we define them. Anyway, in the body of ` respond ` , we can just say ` StringOK `
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+ now, rather than the full ` StringResult::StringOK ` . Importing variants can be convenient, but can
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+ also cause name conflicts, so do this with caution. It's considered good style to rarely import
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+ variants for this reason.
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+
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As you can see ` enum ` s with values are quite a powerful tool for data representation,
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and can be even more useful when they're generic across types. But before we get to
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generics, let's talk about how to use them with pattern matching, a tool that will
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