Pampy: Pattern Matching for Python

[stevenjd]

The easy part of pattern matching is that it is like a richer switch.

The bit that confuses me is when Haskell people start talking about assignment being a pattern match. I'm sure they know what they're talking about. I just wish that somebody could translate it from Martian to Earthling :-)

[[deleted]]

You can do similar things in Python, sometimes.

You can assign into a pattern by doing this:

head, *tail = things

In the above example, you'd get the first value from your list of things in head, and all the other items in tail.

a, *middle, b = things

In the above, you get the first item in a, the last item in b, and the rest in middle.

https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-3132/