Enum std::convert::Infallible

pub enum Infallible {}

The error type for errors that can never happen.

Since this enum has no variant, a value of this type can never actually exist. This can be useful for generic APIs that use Result and parameterize the error type, to indicate that the result is always Ok.

For example, the TryFrom trait (conversion that returns a Result) has a blanket implementation for all types where a reverse Into implementation exists.

impl<T, U> TryFrom<U> for T where U: Into<T> {
    type Error = Infallible;

    fn try_from(value: U) -> Result<Self, Infallible> {
        Ok(U::into(value))  // Never returns `Err`
    }
}

Future compatibility

This enum has the same role as the ! “never” type, which is unstable in this version of Rust. When ! is stabilized, we plan to make Infallible a type alias to it:

pub type Infallible = !;

… and eventually deprecate Infallible.

However there is one case where ! syntax can be used before ! is stabilized as a full-fleged type: in the position of a function’s return type. Specifically, it is possible implementations for two different function pointer types:

trait MyTrait {}
impl MyTrait for fn() -> ! {}
impl MyTrait for fn() -> std::convert::Infallible {}

With Infallible being an enum, this code is valid. However when Infallible becomes an alias for the never type, the two impls will start to overlap and therefore will be disallowed by the language’s trait coherence rules.

Trait Implementations

Auto Trait Implementations

Blanket Implementations

impl<'_, F> Future for &'_ mut F where
    F: Unpin + Future + ?Sized, 
    type Output = <F as Future>::Output;
impl<'_, I> Iterator for &'_ mut I where
    I: Iterator + ?Sized, 
    type Item = <I as Iterator>::Item;
impl<'_, R: Read + ?Sized> Read for &'_ mut R
impl<'_, W: Write + ?Sized> Write for &'_ mut W

impl<'_, F> Future for &'_ mut F where
    F: Unpin + Future + ?Sized, 
    type Output = <F as Future>::Output;
impl<'_, I> Iterator for &'_ mut I where
    I: Iterator + ?Sized, 
    type Item = <I as Iterator>::Item;
impl<'_, R: Read + ?Sized> Read for &'_ mut R
impl<'_, W: Write + ?Sized> Write for &'_ mut W