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| 1 | +- # Pattern Matching |
| 2 | + - A fundamental concept in programming that enables the examination and deconstruction of data structures based on their form |
| 3 | + - Allows developers to specify patterns to which data should conform |
| 4 | + - Facilitates concise and readable code for data extraction, transformation, and control flow |
| 5 | + - ## Definition |
| 6 | + - Involves checking a given sequence of tokens or data structures for the presence of constituents of some pattern |
| 7 | + - Unlike pattern recognition, which may allow approximate matches, pattern matching typically requires an exact match |
| 8 | + - Patterns can take the form of sequences or tree structures |
| 9 | + - ## Key Capabilities |
| 10 | + - **Locating patterns within data**: Finding specific structures or values |
| 11 | + - **Extracting components**: Destructuring data structures to access their parts |
| 12 | + - **Substituting matching patterns**: Replacing matched patterns with other sequences |
| 13 | + - **Control flow**: Directing program execution based on data structure |
| 14 | + - ## Language Implementations |
| 15 | + - ### Functional Languages |
| 16 | + - **Haskell, ML, Scala**: Use pattern matching extensively to destructure data types and control program flow |
| 17 | + - Pattern matching is often used in function definitions |
| 18 | + - Example (Haskell): |
| 19 | + - ~~~haskell |
| 20 | + factorial 0 = 1 |
| 21 | + factorial n = n * factorial (n - 1) |
| 22 | + ~~~ |
| 23 | + - ### Object-Oriented Languages |
| 24 | + - **C#**: Introduced pattern matching in C# 7.0 for switch statements and expressions |
| 25 | + - **Java**: Added pattern matching features to enhance type checking and data extraction |
| 26 | + - ### Systems Languages |
| 27 | + - **Rust**: Uses pattern matching extensively with `match` expressions for safe data handling |
| 28 | + - **Swift**: Incorporates pattern matching for safer and more expressive code constructs |
| 29 | + - ### Scripting Languages |
| 30 | + - **Python**: Python 3.10 introduced structural pattern matching with `match`/`case` statements |
| 31 | + - Example (Python): |
| 32 | + - ~~~python |
| 33 | + match command: |
| 34 | + case ["move", x, y]: |
| 35 | + move_to(x, y) |
| 36 | + case ["draw", shape]: |
| 37 | + draw_shape(shape) |
| 38 | + case _: |
| 39 | + print("Unknown command") |
| 40 | + ~~~ |
| 41 | + - ## Historical Context |
| 42 | + - **Early Implementations**: Languages like SNOBOL (1962) and COMIT (1957) were among the first to introduce pattern matching, primarily for string manipulation |
| 43 | + - **Functional Programming**: The ML language (1973) and its successors integrated pattern matching as a core feature |
| 44 | + - **Modern Developments**: Many modern languages have incorporated pattern matching to provide safer and more expressive code constructs |
| 45 | + - ## Common Use Cases |
| 46 | + - **Destructuring**: Extracting values from complex data structures (tuples, structs, enums) |
| 47 | + - **Type checking**: Handling different types or variants in a type-safe manner |
| 48 | + - **Control flow**: Replacing if-else chains or switch statements with more expressive pattern-based logic |
| 49 | + - **Error handling**: Matching on error types and success cases |
| 50 | + - **Data transformation**: Converting between different data representations |
| 51 | + - ## Related |
| 52 | + - [[Rust/match]] - Pattern matching in Rust using `match` expressions |
| 53 | + - [[Programming/Enum]] - Enums are often used with pattern matching |
| 54 | + - [[Programming/Language/Feature]] - Pattern matching as a language feature |
| 55 | + - Functional programming concepts |
| 56 | + |
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