eitherDecode

eitherDecode is a function found in certain programming language libraries, particularly those dealing with functional programming paradigms or data serialization formats like MessagePack. Its primary purpose is to deserialize or decode a value that could be one of two possible types. This is often represented as a sum type or a tagged union in other contexts.

The function typically takes a serialized byte stream or a similar data structure and attempts to interpret it according to predefined schemas or expected formats for the two possible types. If the decoding is successful for the first type, it returns the decoded value of that type. If it fails or the data clearly indicates the second type, it then attempts to decode it as the second possible type. The success or failure of the decoding process, along with the resulting value, is usually returned in a structured way, often as a result or either type that explicitly indicates success with a value or failure with an error.

The use of eitherDecode is prevalent in scenarios where data can legitimately come in two distinct forms, and the program needs to handle both gracefully without requiring explicit type checking before deserialization. This can simplify error handling and make code more robust when dealing with external data sources or inter-process communication where the exact type of incoming data might not be guaranteed.