--- a/src/memtable.rs	Mon Jan 02 15:42:18 2017 +0100
+++ b/src/memtable.rs	Mon Jan 02 17:37:09 2017 +0100
@@ -187,26 +187,26 @@
         let mt = get_memtable();
 
         // Smaller sequence number doesn't find entry
-        if let Result::Ok(v) = mt.get(&LookupKey::new("abc".as_bytes(), 110)) {
+        if let Ok(v) = mt.get(&LookupKey::new("abc".as_bytes(), 110)) {
             println!("{:?}", v);
             panic!("found");
         }
 
         // Bigger sequence number falls back to next smaller
-        if let Result::Ok(v) = mt.get(&LookupKey::new("abc".as_bytes(), 116)) {
+        if let Ok(v) = mt.get(&LookupKey::new("abc".as_bytes(), 116)) {
             assert_eq!(v, "122".as_bytes());
         } else {
             panic!("not found");
         }
 
         // Exact match works
-        if let Result::Ok(v) = mt.get(&LookupKey::new("abc".as_bytes(), 120)) {
+        if let Ok(v) = mt.get(&LookupKey::new("abc".as_bytes(), 120)) {
             assert_eq!(v, "123".as_bytes());
         } else {
             panic!("not found");
         }
 
-        if let Result::Ok(v) = mt.get(&LookupKey::new("abe".as_bytes(), 122)) {
+        if let Ok(v) = mt.get(&LookupKey::new("abe".as_bytes(), 122)) {
             assert_eq!(v, "125".as_bytes());
         } else {
             panic!("not found");

--- a/src/types.rs	Mon Jan 02 15:42:18 2017 +0100
+++ b/src/types.rs	Mon Jan 02 17:37:09 2017 +0100
@@ -1,5 +1,10 @@
 //! A collection of fundamental and/or simple types used by other modules
 
+use std::error::Error;
+use std::fmt::{self, Display, Formatter};
+use std::io;
+use std::result;
+
 #[derive(Debug, PartialOrd, PartialEq)]
 pub enum ValueType {
     TypeDeletion = 0,
@@ -19,7 +24,52 @@
     Corruption(String),
     NotSupported(String),
     InvalidArgument(String),
+    PermissionDenied(String),
     IOError(String),
+    Unknown(String),
+}
+
+impl Display for Status {
+    fn fmt(&self, fmt: &mut Formatter) -> result::Result<(), fmt::Error> {
+        fmt.write_str(self.description())
+    }
+}
+
+impl Error for Status {
+    fn description(&self) -> &str {
+        match *self {
+            Status::OK => "ok",
+            Status::NotFound(ref s) => s,
+            Status::Corruption(ref s) => s,
+            Status::NotSupported(ref s) => s,
+            Status::InvalidArgument(ref s) => s,
+            Status::PermissionDenied(ref s) => s,
+            Status::IOError(ref s) => s,
+            Status::Unknown(ref s) => s,
+        }
+    }
+}
+
+/// LevelDB's result type
+pub type Result<T> = result::Result<T, Status>;
+
+pub fn from_io_result<T>(e: io::Result<T>) -> Result<T> {
+    match e {
+        Ok(r) => result::Result::Ok(r),
+        Err(e) => {
+            let err = e.description().to_string();
+
+            let r = match e.kind() {
+                io::ErrorKind::NotFound => Err(Status::NotFound(err)),
+                io::ErrorKind::InvalidData => Err(Status::Corruption(err)),
+                io::ErrorKind::InvalidInput => Err(Status::InvalidArgument(err)),
+                io::ErrorKind::PermissionDenied => Err(Status::PermissionDenied(err)),
+                _ => Err(Status::IOError(err)),
+            };
+
+            r
+        }
+    }
 }
 
 /// Denotes a key range