How to use Elixir's \"with\" statement

One of my favorite language constructs of elixir is the pipe operator (|>). It makes really readable code:

defmodule User do
  def set_avatar(args) do
    args
    |> upload_to_s3
    |> create_responsive_sizes
    |> save_to_db
  end
end

It’s easy to tell by reading the function set_avatar what is going on here without needing to see the other functions.

How do you handle errors in this scenario? There are a few options available:

1. Store the error in the data structure that is piped and handle it at the end
2. Use an Ecto.Multi transaction
3. Use the with statement

With statement

Let’s look at the third option: with. Consider this example:

defmodule User do
  def set_avatar(args) do
    with {:ok, url} <- upload_to_s3(args),
         {:ok, sizes} <- create_responsive_sizes(url),
         {:ok, result} <- save_to_db(sizes) do
      # Return the result
      {:ok, result}
    else
      # Handle specific errors here
      {:error, :network_timeout} ->
        set_avatar(args, retries: 1)

      error ->
        Logger.error("Could not set sizes: #{IO.inspect(error)}")
        {:error, :could_not_set_avatar}
    end
  end
end

The with statement matches the return of each function. If they all match, the first do block is executed:

defmodule User do
  def set_avatar(args) do
    with {:ok, url} <- upload_to_s3(args),
         {:ok, sizes} <- create_responsive_sizes(url),
         {:ok, result} <- save_to_db(sizes) do
      # Return the result
      {:ok, result}
    else
      # Handle specific errors here
      {:error, :network_timeout} ->
        set_avatar(args, retries: 1)

      error ->
        Logger.error("Could not set sizes: #{IO.inspect(error)}")
        {:error, :could_not_set_avatar}
    end
  end
end

If any of the returns do not match, the else block gets executed:

defmodule User do
  def set_avatar(args) do
    with {:ok, url} <- upload_to_s3(args),
         {:ok, sizes} <- create_responsive_sizes(url),
         {:ok, result} <- save_to_db(sizes) do
      # Return the result
      {:ok, result}
    else
      # Handle specific errors here
      {:error, :network_timeout} ->
        set_avatar(args, retries: 1)

      error ->
        Logger.error("Could not set sizes: #{IO.inspect(error)}")
        {:error, :could_not_set_avatar}
    end
  end
end

In the else block you can handle specific errors by matching on function returns. Here we handle a :network_timeout specifically and any other error generically.

defmodule User do
  def set_avatar(args) do
    with {:ok, url} <- upload_to_s3(args),
         {:ok, sizes} <- create_responsive_sizes(url),
         {:ok, result} <- save_to_db(sizes) do
      # Return the result
      {:ok, result}
    else
      # Handle specific errors here
      {:error, :network_timeout} ->
        set_avatar(args, retries: 1)

      error ->
        Logger.error("Could not set sizes: #{IO.inspect(error)}")
        {:error, :could_not_set_avatar}
    end
  end
end

Using intermediate results

Another helpful feature of the with statement is the ability to use results returned by each function in the next. For example, if our save_to_db function needed the url and sizes we could do that with:

defmodule User do
  def set_avatar(args) do
    with {:ok, url} <- upload_to_s3(args),
         {:ok, sizes} <- create_responsive_sizes(url),
         {:ok, result} <- save_to_db(sizes, url) do
      # Return the result
      {:ok, result}
    else
      # Handle specific errors here
      {:error, :network_timeout} ->
        set_avatar(args, retries: 1)

      error ->
        Logger.error("Could not set sizes: #{IO.inspect(error)}")
        {:error, :could_not_set_avatar}
    end
  end
end

I have found the with statement quite useful as I develop applications with elixir. I hope this example helps!