How to convert an Option to an Either in Scala
Julien Truffaut
26th October 2023
In Scala, the Option type is commonly used to represent situations where data may be absent. However, it lacks the ability to convey why the data is missing. This is where the Either type comes into play, providing additional context. In this article, we will explore various approaches to convert Option to Either and vice versa.
Pattern Matching
Option is an enumeration with two possible values: None and Some. Pattern matching is a straightforward way to handle these cases. For instance, consider the following code to convert an Option[User] to an Either[String, User]:
def getUser(userId: String): Option[User] = ...
getUser("1234") match {
case None => Left("User 1234 is missing")
case Some(user) => Right(user)
}
Pattern matching is simple but can become verbose in nested cases. For example, if we want to find out a user's email address from their user id, the function might fail either because the user doesn't exist or because we don't know their email address.
case class User(id: String, name: String, email: Option[Email])
def getUserEmail(userId: String): Either[String, Email] =
getUser(userId) match {
case None => Left(s"User $userId is missing")
case Some(user) =>
user.email match {
case None => Left(s"User $userId has no email")
case Some(email) => Right(email)
}
}
toRight method
To streamline the conversion, Scala's Option provides a method called toRight that directly transforms a Some into a Right and None into a Left:
getUser("1234").toRight("User 1234 is missing")
// res: Either[String, User] = Left("User 1234 is missing") OR
// res: Either[String, User] = Right(User(...))
By combining toRight with a for-comprehension, we can significantly enhance the readability of our code, as shown below:
def getUserEmail(userId: String): Either[String, Email] =
for {
user <- getUser(userId).toRight(s"User $userId is missing")
email <- user.email.toRight(s"User $userId has no email)
} yield email
Either to Option
If you need to convert an Either back to an Option, you can easily accomplish this using the toOption method:
Right(1).toOption
// res: Option[Int] = Some(1)
Left(1).toOption
// res: Option[Nothing] = None
In summary, converting between Option and Either in Scala is a common operation when dealing with potential data absence. Pattern matching is the most straightforward approach, but the toRight method and for-comprehensions provide more concise and readable alternatives. Additionally, Scala's built-in toOption method makes the reverse conversion from Either to Option a breeze. Choose the method that best suits your code and project requirements.