Pattern Matching

Definitions

1. A language feature that checks a value against a series of patterns and destructures it in the process, combining conditional logic and data extraction in one step. Found in Rust (match), Elixir (case), Python 3.10+ (match/case), and most functional languages.

   In plain English: A way to look at data and say 'if it looks like this shape, pull out the pieces I need' — like sorting mail by envelope size and extracting the contents in one motion.

   Example: "With pattern matching, handling a Result is just match result { Ok(val) => use(val), Err(e) => handle(e) }."

Related Terms

• Continuation
• Cut
• Discriminated Union
• Do-Loop
• Effect System
• Enum
• Predicate
• Proc
• Tail Call
• Memoization
• Continuation
• Lens
• Algebraic Effects