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Matching

The when *expr* is expression is the most common kind of flow control in Aiken code. It allows us to say "if the data has this shape then do that", which we call pattern matching.

Here we match on an Int and return a specific string for the values 0, 1, and 2. The final pattern n matches any other value that did not match any of the previous patterns.

when some_number is {
  0 -> "Zero"
  1 -> "One"
  2 -> "Two"
  n -> "Some other number" // This matches anything
}

Pattern matching on a Bool value is discouraged and if else expressions should be use instead.

if some_bool {
  "It's true!"
else {
  "It's not true."
}

Aiken's when *expr* is is an expression, meaning it returns a value and can be used anywhere we would use a value. For example, we can name the value of a case expression with a let binding.

type Answer {
  Yes
  No
}

let answer = Yes

let description =
  when answer is {
    Yes -> "It's yes!"
    No -> "It's not yes."
  }

description  // => "It's true!"

Destructuring

A when *expr* is expression can be used to destructure values that contain other values, such as tuples and lists.

when xs is {
  [] -> "This list is empty"
  [a] -> "This list has 1 element"
  [a, b] -> "This list has 2 elements"
  _other -> "This list has more than 2 elements"
}

It's not just the top level data structure that can be pattern matched, contained values can also be matched. This gives case the ability to concisely express flow control that might be verbose without pattern matching.

when xs is {
  [[]] -> "The only element is an empty list"
  [[], ..] -> "The 1st element is an empty list"
  [[4], ..] -> "The 1st element is a list of the number 4"
  other -> "Something else"
}

Pattern matching also works in let bindings, though patterns that do not match all instances of that type may result in a runtime error.

let [a] = [1]    // a is 1
let [b] = [1, 2] // Runtime error! The pattern has 1 element but the value has 2

Assigning names to sub-patterns

Sometimes when pattern matching we want to assign a name to a value while specifying its shape at the same time. We can do this using the as keyword.

case xs {
  [[_, ..] as inner_list] -> inner_list
  other -> []
}

Checking equality and ordering in patterns

The if keyword can be used to add a guard expression to a case clause. Both the patterns have to match and the guard has to evaluate to True for the clause to match. The guard expression can check for equality or ordering for Int.

case xs {
  [a, b, c] if a == b && b != c -> "ok"
  _other -> "ko"
}

Alternative clause patterns

Alternative patterns can be given for a case clause using the | operator. If any of the patterns match then the clause matches.

Here the first clause will match if the variable number holds 2, 4, 6 or 8.

case number {
  2 | 4 | 6 | 8 -> "This is an even number"
  1 | 3 | 5 | 7 -> "This is an odd number"
  _ -> "I'm not sure"
}

If the patterns declare variables then the same variables must be declared in all patterns, and the variables must have the same type in all the patterns.

case list {
  [1, x] | x -> x // Error! Int != List(Int)
  _ -> 0
}

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