/**
@page spanner-error-handling Error Handling

[StatusOr<T>]: @ref google::cloud::StatusOr
[RuntimeStatusError]: @ref google::cloud::RuntimeStatusError

This library never throws exceptions to signal error. In general, the library
returns a [StatusOr<T>] if an error is possible. Some
functions return objects that are not wrapped in a `StatusOr<T>` but will
themselves return a `StatusOr<T>` to signal an error. For example, wrappers for
asynchronous operations return `future<StatusOr<T>>`.

Applications should check if the `StatusOr<T>` contains a value before using
it, much like how you might check that a pointer is not null before
dereferencing it. Indeed, a `StatusOr<T>` object can be used like a
smart-pointer to `T`, with the main difference being that when it does not hold
a `T` it will instead hold a `Status` object with extra information about the
error.

You can check that a `StatusOr<T>` contains a value by calling the `.ok()`
method, or by using `operator bool()` (like with other smart pointers). If
there is no value, you can access the contained `Status` object using the
`.status()` member. If there is a value, you may access it by dereferencing
with `operator*()` or `operator->()`. As with all smart pointers, callers must
first check that the `StatusOr<T>` contains a value before dereferencing and
accessing the contained value. Alternatively, callers may instead use the
`.value()` member function which is defined to throw a [RuntimeStatusError] if
there is no value.

@note If you're compiling with exceptions disabled, calling `.value()` on a
    `StatusOr<T>` that does not contain a value will terminate the program
    instead of throwing.

@par Example
@snippet samples.cc example-status-or

@see @ref google::cloud::StatusOr
@see @ref google::cloud::Status the class used to describe errors.
@see @ref google::cloud::future for more details on the type returned
    by asynchronous operations.
*/
