since there are no checked exceptions in kotlin, is it best to have error return values instead?

# announcements

[william]

since there are no checked exceptions in kotlin, is it best to have error return values instead?

[streetsofboston]

You still have exceptions that you can catch... they are just not checked.
But, if you like function-style programming, making your functions more pure by either carrying a good return value or an error value (e.g. Either<E,T>), that'd be better than them throwing an exception...

[serebit]

Imo, exceptions should be exceptional. If your code needs to halt and catch fire when something genuinely unexpected happens, use an exception. If it's expected to happen sometimes, use either a nullable return or a sealed class return if you want more detailed information

[william]

makes sense. remind me of programming in c having result codes everywhere

[Pavlo Liapota]

This can help to make a decision
https://kotlinlang.slack.com/archives/C0922A726/p1536388784000100?thread_ts=1536360062.000100&cid=C0922A726

[Matteo Mirk]

Nothing prevents you to catch exception, they’re just not enforced by the compiler, unlike Java. On a functional side, adding to the excellent advice above, you could use Result from standard lib (https://kotlinlang.org/api/latest/jvm/stdlib/kotlin/-result/index.html) or Either if using Arrow (https://arrow-kt.io/docs/arrow/core/either/#either)