match-commutative 0.1.0-alpha.0

Documentation

Motivation

When you need to match on three values that form a commutative math relation, you often need to duplicate a lot of patterns. Let's look at an example of what this might look like:

// imagine that these values come from somewhere and we need to match on them
let operant1 = Operant::Str(Some("42".into()));
let operant2 = Operant::Num(Some(1));
let operator = Operator::Plus;

match (operant1, operator, operant2) {
    (
        Operant::Str(Some(operant_str)),
        Operator::Plus,
        Operant::Num(Some(operant_num)),
    )
    | (
        Operant::Num(Some(operant_num)),
        Operator::Plus,
        Operant::Str(Some(operant_str)),
    ) => {
        let result = operant_num + operant_str.parse::<isize>().unwrap();
        println!("Result is: {}", result);
    }
    (
        Operant::Str(Some(operant_str)),
        Operator::Mult,
        Operant::Num(Some(operant_num)),
    )
    | (
        Operant::Num(Some(operant_num)),
        Operator::Mult,
        Operant::Str(Some(operant_str)),
    ) => {
        let result = operant_num * operant_str.parse::<isize>().unwrap();
        println!("Result is: {}", result);
    }
    (_, _, _) => {
        panic!("Not relevant for this example")
    }
}

// Types that we use in this example
enum Operant {
    Str(Option<String>),
    Num(Option<isize>),
}

enum Operator {
    Plus,
    Mult,
    Minus,
}

For both Operator::{Plus, Mult}, we have to write two patterns each that are exactly identical (and connect them with | (or-pattern)) and execute the same logic. The only difference in the pattern is the ordering of the Operant. Not nice!

Using `match-commutative` instead

With match-commutative this can be simplified to:

use match_commutative::match_commutative;
// imagine that these values come from somewhere and we need to match on them
let operant1 = Operant::Str(Some("42".into()));
let operant2 = Operant::Num(Some(1));
let operator = Operator::Plus;

match_commutative!(
    operant1,
    operator,
    operant2,
    Operant::Str(Some(operant_str)),
    Operator::Plus,
    Operant::Num(Some(operant_num)) => {
        let result = operant_num + operant_str.parse::<isize>().unwrap();
        println!("Result is: {}", result);
    },
    Operant::Str(Some(operant_str)),
    Operator::Mult,
    Operant::Num(Some(operant_num)) => {
        let result = operant_num * operant_str.parse::<isize>().unwrap();
        println!("Result is: {}", result);
    }
    non_commut {
        _, _, _ => {
            // in `non_commut` block, patterns and their execution block behave exactly like std Rust
            panic!("Not relevant for this example")
        }
    }
);

// Types that we use in this example
enum Operant {
    Str(Option<String>),
    Num(Option<isize>),
}

enum Operator {
    Plus,
    Mult,
    Minus,
}

Note that in the above example the values of operant1 and operant2 could have been swapped, while still leading to the same program output. So we have successfully avoided the expression of ordering in our patterns (where ordering is not needed between two Operants).✨

Getting Started

In your Cargo.toml file add the following lines under [dependencies]:

match-commutative = "0.1.0-alpha.0"

Safety

This crate is implemented in 100% Safe Rust, which is ensured by using #![forbid(unsafe_code)].

MSRV

The Minimum Supported Rust Version for this crate is 1.54. An increase of MSRV will be indicated by a minor change (according to SemVer).