[thesuperbigfrog]

>> Presumably missing session is an alternative scenario and thus should be reported as an error

But in this case, a query using an invalid session ID is not an error. It is asking for details about something that does not exist.

>> cf File::open that could return Result<Option<File>> if file is not found.

This type of query is not like File::open which gets a handle to a resource. Trying to get a handle to a resource that does not exist is an error.

This type of query is read-only and does not allocate any resources or prepare to do anything with the session.

It simplifies the control flow because it distinguishes between errors in completing a query versus the presence or absence of items returned from the query.

[lenkite]

How does the caller know whether the response was empty because of an invalid session id ? You have conflated empty response with an erroneous situation. The simplest solution is just Result<T, E>.

[thesuperbigfrog]

>> How does the caller know whether the response was empty because of an invalid session id ?

Documentation and how SQL database queries work.

The documentation states that a valid session id will return a SessionInfo struct (since it is an Option the type is Some(SessionInfo) ), and that an invalid session id will return None.

If the SQL query is something like "SELECT * FROM USER_SESSIONS WHERE USER_SESSION_ID = $1" then if an invalid session id is provided the database returns zero rows. The query was successful, but there were no matching sessions with that session id.

>> You have conflated empty response with an erroneous situation. The simplest solution is just Result<T, E>.

Again, an empty response is not an error in this situation. If your database query returns zero rows, is it an error? The database query succeeded. There are no sessions with the provided session id. What error occurred?