Match.jl –- Advanced Pattern Matching for Julia

This package provides both simple and advanced pattern matching capabilities for Julia. Features include:

• Matching against almost any data type with a first-match policy
• Deep matching within data types, tuples, and vectors
• Variable binding within matches
• Efficient code generation via a decision automaton.

Installation

Use the Julia package manager. Within Julia, do:

Pkg.add("Match")

Usage

Simple-pattern @ismatch macro

The @ismatch macro tests if a value patches a given pattern, returning either true if it matches, or false if it does not. When the pattern matches, the variables named in the pattern are bound and can be used.

julia> using Match

julia> @ismatch (1, 2) (x, y)
true

julia> x
1

julia> y
2

Multi-case @match macro

The @match macro acts as a pattern-matching switch statement, in which each case has a pattern and a result for when that pattern matches. The first case that matches is the one that computes the result for the @match.

using Match
@match item begin
    pattern1              => result1
    pattern2 where cond   => result2
    pattern3 || pattern4  => result3
    _                     => default_result
end

Patterns can be values, regular expressions, type checks or constructors, tuples, or arrays. It is possible to supply variables inside a pattern, which will be bound to corresponding values. This and other features are best seen with examples.

Match Values

The easiest kind of matching to use is simply to match against values:

@match item begin
   1 => "one"
   2 => "two"
   _ => "Something else..."
end

Values can be computed expressions by using interpolation. That is how to use @match with @enums:

@enum Color Red Blue Greed
@match item begin
   $Red => "Red"
   $Blue => "Blue"
   $Greed => "Greed is the color of money"
   _ => "Something else..."
end

Match Types

Julia already does a great job of this with functions and multiple dispatch, and it is generally be better to use those mechanisms when possible. But it can be done here:

julia> matchtype(item) = @match item begin
           ::Int               => println("Integers are awesome!")
           ::String            => println("Strings are the best")
           ::Dict{Int, String} => println("Ints for Strings?")
           ::Dict              => println("A Dict! Looking up a word?")
           _                   => println("Something unexpected")
   end

julia> matchtype(66)
Integers are awesome!

julia> matchtype("abc")
Strings are the best

julia> matchtype(Dict{Int, String}(1=>"a",2=>"b"))
Ints for Strings?

julia> matchtype(Dict())
A Dict! Looking up a word?

julia> matchtype(2.0)
Something unexpected

Deep Matching of Composite Types

One nice feature is the ability to match embedded types, as well as bind variables to components of those types:

struct Address
    street::String
    city::String
    zip::String
end

struct Person
    firstname::String
    lastname::String
    address::Address
end

personinfo(person) = @match person begin
  Person("Julia", lname,  _)           => "Found Julia $lname"
  Person(fname, "Julia", _)            => "$fname Julia was here!"
  Person(fname, lname,
         Address(_, "Cambridge", zip)) => "$fname $lname lives in zip $zip"
  Person(_...)                         => "Unknown person!"
end

julia> personinfo(Person("Julia", "Robinson",
                  Address("450 Serra Mall", "Stanford", "94305")))
"Found Julia Robinson"

julia> personinfo(Person("Gaston", "Julia",
                  Address("1 rue Victor Cousin", "Paris", "75005")))
"Gaston Julia was here!"

julia> personinfo(Person("Edwin", "Aldrin",
                  Address("350 Memorial Dr", "Cambridge", "02139")))
"Edwin Aldrin lives in zip 02139"

julia> personinfo(Person("Linus", "Pauling",
                  Address("1200 E California Blvd", "Pasadena", "91125")))
"Unknown person!"

Alternatives and Guards

Alternatives allow a match against multiple patterns.

Guards allow a conditional match. They are not a standard part of Julia yet, so to get the parser to accept them requires that they are preceded by a comma and end with "end":

function parse_arg(arg::String, value::Any=nothing)
    @match (arg, value) begin
        ("-l",              lang)    => println("Language set to $lang")
        ("-o" || "--optim", n::Int),
        if 0 < n <= 5 end            => println("Optimization level set to $n")
        ("-o" || "--optim", n::Int)  => println("Illegal optimization level $(n)!")
        ("-h" || "--help",  nothing) => println("Help!")
        bad                          => println("Unknown argument: $bad")
    end
end

julia> parse_arg("-l", "eng")
Language set to eng

julia> parse_arg("-l")
Unknown argument: ("-l",nothing)

julia> parse_arg("-o", 4)
Optimization level set to 4

julia> parse_arg("--optim", 5)
Optimization level set to 5

julia> parse_arg("-o", 0)
Illegal optimization level 0!

julia> parse_arg("-o", 1.0)
Unknown argument: ("-o",1.0)

julia> parse_arg("-h")
Help!

julia> parse_arg("--help")
Help!

The alternative guard syntax pattern where expression can sometimes be easier to use.

function parse_arg(arg::String, value::Any=nothing)
    @match (arg, value) begin
        ("-l",              lang)    => println("Language set to $lang")
        ("-o" || "--optim", n::Int) where 0 < n <= 5 =>
                                        println("Optimization level set to $n")
        ("-o" || "--optim", n::Int)  => println("Illegal optimization level $(n)!")
        ("-h" || "--help",  nothing) => println("Help!")
        bad                          => println("Unknown argument: $bad")
    end
end

Match Ranges

Borrowing a nice idea from pattern matching in Rust, pattern matching against ranges is also supported:

julia> function num_match(n)
           @match n begin
               0      => "zero"
               1 || 2 => "one or two"
               3:10   => "three to ten"
               _      => "something else"
           end
       end
num_match (generic function with 1 method)

julia> num_match(0)
"zero"

julia> num_match(2)
"one or two"

julia> num_match(12)
"something else"

julia> num_match('c')
"something else"

Note that a range can still match another range exactly:

julia> num_match(3:10)
"three to ten"

Regular Expressions

A regular expression can be used as a pattern, and will match any string that satisfies the pattern.

Match.jl used to have complex regular expression handling, permitting the capturing of matched subpatterns. We are considering adding that back again.

Deep Matching Against Arrays

Arrays are intrinsic components of Julia. Match allows deep matching against single-dimensional vectors.

Match previously supported multidimensional arrays. If there is sufficient demand, we'll add support for that again.

The following examples also demonstrate how Match can be used strictly for its extraction/binding capabilities, by only matching against one pattern.

Extract first element, rest of vector

julia> @ismatch 1:4 [a,b...]
true

julia> a
1

julia> b
2:4

Match values at the beginning of a vector

julia> @ismatch 1:5 [1,2,a...]
true

julia> a
3:5

Notes/Gotchas

There are a few useful things to be aware of when using Match.

• if guards need a comma and an `end`:

Bad

julia> _iseven(a) = @match a begin
        n::Int if n%2 == 0 end => println("$n is even")
        m::Int                 => println("$m is odd")
    end
ERROR: syntax: extra token "if" after end of expression

julia> _iseven(a) = @match a begin
        n::Int, if n%2 == 0 => println("$n is even")
        m::Int              => println("$m is odd")
    end
ERROR: syntax: invalid identifier name =>

Good

julia> _iseven(a) = @match a begin
        n::Int, if n%2 == 0 end => println("$n is even")
        m::Int                  => println("$m is odd")
    end
# methods for generic function _iseven
_iseven(a) at none:1

It is sometimes easier to use the where syntax for guards:

julia> _iseven(a) = @match a begin
        n::Int where n%2 == 0   => println("$n is even")
        m::Int                  => println("$m is odd")
    end
# methods for generic function _iseven
_iseven(a) at none:1

@match_return macro

@match_return value

Within the result value (to the right of the =>) part of a @match case, you can use the @match_return macro to return a result early, before the end of the block. This is useful if you have a shortcut for computing the result in some cases. You can think of it as a return statement for the @match macro.

Use of this macro anywhere else will result in an error.

@match_fail macros

@match_fail

Inside the result part of a @match case, you can cause the case to fail as if the corresponding pattern did not match. The @match statement will resume attempting to match the following cases. This is useful if you want to write some complex code that would be awkward to express as a guard.

Use of this macro anywhere else will result in an error.

single-case @match macro

@match pattern = value

Returns the value if it matches the pattern, and binds any pattern variables. Otherwise, throws MatchFailure.

ismatch macro

@ismatch value pattern

Returns true if value matches pattern, false otherwise. When returning true, binds the pattern variables in the enclosing scope.

Examples

Here are a couple of additional examples.

Mathematica-Inspired Sparse Array Constructor

Contributed by @benkj

I've realized that Match.jl is perfect for creating in Julia an equivalent of SparseArray which I find quite useful in Mathematica.

My basic implementation is this:

macro sparsearray(size, rule)
    return quote
        _A = spzeros($size...)
        $(push!(rule.args, :(_ => 0)))

        for _itr in eachindex(_A)
            _A[_itr] = @match(_itr.I, $rule)
        end
        _A
    end
end

Example:

julia> A = @sparsearray (5,5)  begin
               (n,m), if n==m+1 end => m
               (n,m), if n==m-1 end => n+10
               (1,5) => 1
       end

which creates the matrix:

julia> full(A)
5x5 Array{Float64,2}:
 0.0  11.0   0.0   0.0   1.0
 1.0   0.0  12.0   0.0   0.0
 0.0   2.0   0.0  13.0   0.0
 0.0   0.0   3.0   0.0  14.0
 0.0   0.0   0.0   4.0   0.0

Matching Exprs

The @match macro can be used to match Julia expressions (Expr objects). One issue is that the internal structure of Expr objects doesn't match their constructor exactly, so one has to put arguments in brackets, as well as capture the typ field of macros.

The following function is a nice example of matching expressions. It is used in VideoIO.jl to extract the names of expressions generated by Clang.jl, for later filtering and rewriting.:

extract_name(x) = string(x)
function extract_name(e::Expr)
    @match e begin
        Expr(:type,      [_, name, _])     => name
        Expr(:typealias, [name, _])        => name
        Expr(:call,      [name, _...])     => name
        Expr(:function,  [sig, _...])      => extract_name(sig)
        Expr(:const,     [assn, _...])     => extract_name(assn)
        Expr(:(=),       [fn, body, _...]) => extract_name(fn)
        Expr(expr_type,  _...)             => error("Can't extract name from ",
                                                     expr_type, " expression:\n",
                                                     "    $e\n")
    end
end

Inspiration

The following pages on pattern matching in scala provided inspiration for the library:

• http://thecodegeneral.wordpress.com/2012/03/25/switch-statements-on-steroids-scala-pattern-matching/
• http://java.dzone.com/articles/scala-pattern-matching-case
• http://kerflyn.wordpress.com/2011/02/14/playing-with-scalas-pattern-matching/
• http://docs.scala-lang.org/tutorials/tour/case-classes.html

The following paper on pattern-matching inspired the automaton approach to code generation:

• https://www.cs.tufts.edu/~nr/cs257/archive/norman-ramsey/match.pdf

API Documentation

• Match.MatchFailure
• Match.match_fieldnames
• Match.@__match__
• Match.@ismatch
• Match.@match
• Match.@match_fail
• Match.@match_fail
• Match.@match_return
• Match.@match_return

MatchFailure(value)

match_fieldnames(type::Type)

    @__match__ value begin
        pattern1 => result1
        pattern2 => result2
        ...
    end

@ismatch value pattern

julia> struct Point
            x
            y
        end

julia> p = Point(0, 3)
Point(0, 3)

julia> if @ismatch p Point(0, y)
            println("On the y axis at y = ", y)
        end
On the y axis at y = 3

julia> if (@ismatch p Point(x, y)) && x < y
            println("The point (", x, ", ", y, ") is in the upper left semiplane")
        end
The point (0, 3) is in the upper left semiplane

@match pattern = value
@match value begin
    pattern1 => result1
    pattern2 => result2
    ...
end

@match pattern = value

@match value begin
    pattern1 => result1
    pattern2 => result2
    ...
end

julia> value=(1, 2, 3, 4)
(1, 2, 3, 4)

julia> @match (x, y..., z) = value
(1, 2, 3, 4)

julia> x
1

julia> y
(2, 3)

julia> z
4

julia> struct Foo
           x::Int64
           y::String
       end

julia> f(x) = @match x begin
           _::String => :string
           [a,a,a] => (:all_the_same, a)
           [a,bs...,c] => (:at_least_2, a, bs, c)
           Foo(x, "foo") where x > 1 => :foo
       end
f (generic function with 1 method)

julia> f("foo")
:string

julia> f([1,1,1])
(:all_the_same, 1)

julia> f([1,1])
(:at_least_2, 1, Int64[], 1)

julia> f([1,2,3,4])
(:at_least_2, 1, [2, 3], 4)

julia> f([1])
ERROR: MatchFailure([1])
...

julia> f(Foo(2, "foo"))
:foo

julia> f(Foo(0, "foo"))
ERROR: MatchFailure(Foo(0, "foo"))
...

julia> f(Foo(2, "not a foo"))
ERROR: MatchFailure(Foo(2, "not a foo"))
...

@match_fail

julia> struct Vect
           x
           y
       end

julia> function norm(v)
           @match v begin
               Vect(x, y) => begin
                   if x==0 && y==0
                       @match_fail
                   end
                   l = sqrt(x^2 + y^2)
                   Vect(x/l, y/l)
                   end
               _ => v
           end
       end
norm (generic function with 1 method)

julia> norm(Vect(2, 3))
Vect(0.5547001962252291, 0.8320502943378437)

julia> norm(Vect(0, 0))
Vect(0, 0)

@match_fail

@match_fail

@match_return value

julia> struct Vect
           x
           y
       end

julia> function norm(v)
           @match v begin
               Vect(x, y) => begin
                   if x==0 && y==0
                       @match_return v
                   end
                   l = sqrt(x^2 + y^2)
                   Vect(x/l, y/l)
                   end
               _ => v
           end
       end
norm (generic function with 1 method)

julia> norm(Vect(2, 3))
Vect(0.5547001962252291, 0.8320502943378437)

julia> norm(Vect(0, 0))
Vect(0, 0)

@match_return value

@match_return value