We can unwrap a Result safely, if we provide a default value of type T or call a function that returns a value of type T when given a type E:

// pseudocode
// Given: Result<T, E>

Ok(T)  -> T
Err(_) -> T // Return value of `T`
Err(E) -> T // Use a function of type `E` -> `T`

unwrap_or

unwrap_or is defined as:

pub fn unwrap_or(self, default: T) -> T {
    match self {
        Ok(t) => t,
        Err(_) => default,
    }
}

In summary:

// pseudocode
// Given: Result<T, E>
// Return type: T

default: -> T

Ok(t)   ->  t       -> T // Return value in Ok
Err(e)  ->  default -> T // Return default if in error

In the above definition we supply a default value of type T. This default value will be used when there is an Err, the Ok value will be returned otherwise. This is very similar to map_or but where we don’t run a function on the success value.

Here’s an example of using unwrap_or to do just that:

let twenty_five_or_ten_1: u8 = twenty_five(20).unwrap_or(10); // 10
let twenty_five_or_ten_2: u8 = twenty_five(25).unwrap_or(10); // 25

unwrap_or_else

There’s a similarly named function called unwrap_or_else. The main difference being that unwrap_or_else takes in a function op that is called when an Err is returned:

pub fn unwrap_or_else<F: FnOnce(E) -> T>(self, op: F) -> T {
    match self {
        Ok(t) => t,
        Err(e) => op(e),
    }
}

In summary:

// pseudocode
// Given: Result<T, E>
// Return type: T

op: E -> T

Ok(t)   ->  t     -> T // Return value in Ok
Err(e)  ->  op(e) -> T // Convert the value in Err to a `T`

This is very similar to the map_or_else function but where a function is only applied to the error case and not the success case.

unwrap_or_default

Another in the same family of functions is unwrap_or_default, which is defined as:

pub fn unwrap_or_default(self) -> T
where
    T: Default,
{
    match self {
        Ok(x) => x,
        Err(_) => Default::default(),
    }
}

In the above definition, if a Result is an Err then the default instance of type T is used. The type T has a constraint on it that requires that it has an instance of the Default trait: T: Default.

In summary:

// pseudocode
// Given: Result<T, E>
// Return type: T

T: Default     -> T

Ok(t)   ->  t  -> T // Return value in Ok
Err(_)         -> T // Return Default instance for T

Here’s an example of how to use it:

let result_ok: Result<u32, String> = Ok(1);
let result_err: Result<u32, String> = Err("You have errors".to_owned());

result_ok.unwrap_or_default();  // 1
result_err.unwrap_or_default(); // 0

This is also very similar to unwrap_or where, we supply a default value for the error case. With unwrap_or_default the default value is derived from the Default instance for type T.