Abstract
Pattern matching is a great convenience in programming. However, pattern matching has its problems: it conflicts with data abstraction; it is complex (at least in Haskell, which has pattern guards, irrefutable patterns, n+k patterns, as patterns, etc.); it is a source of runtime errors; and lastly, one cannot abstract over patterns as they are not a first class language construct. This paper proposes a simplification of pattern matching that makes patterns first class. The key idea is to treat patterns as functions of type “a→Maybe b”|i.e., “a→(Nothing|Just b)”; thus, patterns and pattern combinators can be written as functions in the language.
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Tullsen, M. (1999). First Class Patterns?. In: Pontelli, E., Santos Costa, V. (eds) Practical Aspects of Declarative Languages. PADL 2000. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 1753. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-46584-7_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-46584-7_1
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