From: eregontp@...
Date: 2019-06-04T21:56:49+00:00
Subject: [ruby-core:92964] [Ruby trunk Feature#15865] `<expr> in <pattern>`	expression

Issue #15865 has been updated by Eregon (Benoit Daloze).


mame (Yusuke Endoh) wrote:
> * Incomplete pattern matching also rewrites variables: `[1, 2, 3] in x, 42, z` will write 1 to the variable "x".  This behavior is the same as the current "case...in".

This sounds concerning to me.
With case/in, it's clear where the variables should be defined, and it's a matter of fixing it so the variables are only defined in that `in pattern` branch, and `nil` in other branches.
(IMHO we should fix that for 2.7, otherwise it will be a compatibility issue).

But here it's unclear how long variables in inline patterns should live.
Probably for the whole method? Or just for the `if`?

E.g.:

```ruby
json = { name: "Me", age: 28, hobby: :ruby }
if json in { name:, age: (...20) }
  ...
end

if json in { name:, hobby: }
  # BUG: age should not be set here
  puts "Hello #{name}, you enjoy #{hobby} and are #{age || "unknown"} years old"
end
```

When used as `if expr in pattern`, I think it is natural to expect no significant side effects, but changing local variables for a partial match seems kind of problematic.

----------------------------------------
Feature #15865: `<expr> in <pattern>` expression
https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/15865#change-78342

* Author: mame (Yusuke Endoh)
* Status: Open
* Priority: Normal
* Assignee: matz (Yukihiro Matsumoto)
* Target version: 
----------------------------------------
How about adding a syntax for one-line pattern matching: `<expr> in <pattern>` ?

```
[1, 2, 3] in x, y, z #=> true (with assigning 1 to x, 2 to y, and 3 to z)
[1, 2, 3] in 1, 2, 4 #=> false
```

More realistic example:

```
json = {
  name: "ko1",
  age: 39,
  address: { postal: 123, city: "Taito-ku" }
}

if json in { name:, age: (20..), address: { city: "Taito-ku" } }
  p name #=> "ko1"
else
  raise "wrong format"
end
```

It is simpler and more composable than "case...in" when only one "in" clause is needed.  I think that in Ruby a pattern matching would be often used for "format-checking", to check a structure of data, and this use case would usually require only one clause.  This is the main rationale for the syntax I propose.

Additional two small rationales:

* It may be used as a kind of "right assignment": `1 + 1 in x` behaves like `x = 1 + 1`.  It returns true instead of 2, though.
* There are some arguments about the syntax "case...in".  But if we have `<expr> in <pattern>`, "case...in" can be considered as a syntactic sugar that is useful for multiple-clause cases, and looks more natural to me.

There are two points I should note:

* `<expr> in <pattern>` is an expression like `<expr> and <expr>`, so we cannot write it as an argument: `foo(1 in 1)` causes SyntaxError.  You need to write `foo((1 in 1))` as like `foo((1 and 1))`.  I think it is impossible to implement.
* Incomplete pattern matching also rewrites variables: `[1, 2, 3] in x, 42, z` will write 1 to the variable "x".  This behavior is the same as the current "case...in".

Nobu wrote a patch: https://github.com/nobu/ruby/pull/new/feature/expr-in-pattern



-- 
https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/

Unsubscribe: <mailto:ruby-core-request@ruby-lang.org?subject=unsubscribe>
<http://lists.ruby-lang.org/cgi-bin/mailman/options/ruby-core>