throwvariant

throwvariant is a term that sometimes appears in discussions related to programming languages, particularly those with a strong emphasis on error handling or functional programming paradigms. It generally refers to a mechanism or data structure designed to represent a value that can either be a successful result or an error. This concept is closely related to algebraic data types, specifically the sum type often implemented as a "Result" or "Either" type in many languages.

The primary purpose of a throwvariant is to distinguish between normal execution flow and exceptional circumstances without resorting to traditional exceptions, which can sometimes be difficult to track or manage. When a function might fail, instead of throwing an exception that interrupts the program's control flow, it can return a throwvariant. This throwvariant would then contain either the successful data or information about the error that occurred.

Programmers can then explicitly check the returned throwvariant to determine whether to proceed with the result or handle the error. This approach promotes more robust and predictable error handling by making potential failures explicit parts of the function's signature. Many modern languages, such as Rust (with its `Result` enum) and Haskell (with its `Either` type), incorporate similar concepts, encouraging developers to handle all possible outcomes of an operation. The term "throwvariant" itself might not be a universally standardized keyword but rather a descriptive term for this common pattern.