pyPMatch

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This project eventually led to pattern matching being included in Python 3.10 (see PEP 634). It is thus obsolete and no longer maintained.

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pyPMatch provides Pattern Matching in Python. It is mostly based on pattern matching as found in Scala. Its main objective is to deconstruct objects, and thereby check if any given object fulfills the criteria to be deconstructed in a particular way.

This document gives a rough, unpolished overview of pyPMatch, and its abilities. Better documentation can be found in the doc-folder, in particular the introduction. There is also a FAQ further below.

pyPMatch requires at least Python 3.4.

Example

pyPMatch was initially developed for analysis of Python code via its Abstract Syntax Tree (AST). The example below shows how pyPMatch's pattern matching can be used to implement a very simple code optimiser. However, there is nothing special about the ast-module from pyPMatch's point of view, and you can equally use it in combination with anything else.

import ast
from ast import Add, BinOp, Num

def simplify(node):
    match node:
        case BinOp(Num(x), Add(), Num(y)):
            return Num(x + y)
        case BinOp(Num(n=x), Sub(), Num(n=y)):
            return Num(x - y)
        case ast.UnaryOp(ast.USub(), x @ Num()):
            return Num(-x.n)
        case _:
            return node

You will find more examples in the examples folder; just run run_example.py.

There is also some documentation in the doc-folder, in particular the introduction.

Usage

Install pyPMatch

In order to install the pyPMatch library, simple do:

pip install pyPMatch

Compile/Execute Code Directly

If you simply want to take pyPMatch on a test drive, use pyma_exec as shown below.

from pmatch import pama_exec

my_code = """
from random import randint
match randint(0, 19):
    case 0:
        print("nothing")
    case 1 | 4 | 9 | 16:
        print("a square")
    case 2 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 11 | 13 | 17 | 19:
        print("a prime")
    case _:
        print("some other number")
"""

pama_exec(my_code)

It is equally possible to retrieve, and inspect the code generated by pyPMatch, using the function pama_translate:

from pmatch import pama_translate

my_code = """
from random import randint
match randint(0, 19):
    case 0:
        print("nothing")
    case 1 | 4 | 9 | 16:
        print("a square")
    case 2 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 11 | 13 | 17 | 19:
        print("a prime")
    case _:
        print("some other number")
"""

code, match_code = pama_translate(my_code)
print(code)         # the translation of the original code
print("=" * 80)
print(match_code)   # additional code for the actual matching

Import Code From Python Modules

It is probably more convenient to install the auto import hook, so that all modules in your package/project are compiled using the pyPMatch-compiler (if they contain a case statement, that is). The auto import is installed directly through the import of enable_auto_import.

from pmatch import enable_auto_import
from random import randint

import my_module
my_module.test_me( randint(0, 19) )

The contents of my_module.py is then something like:

def test_me(arg):
    match arg:
        case 0:
            print("nothing")
        case 1 | 4 | 9 | 16:
            print("a square")
        case 2 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 11 | 13 | 17 | 19:
            print("a prime")
        case int():
            print("some other number")
        case _:
            print("please provide an integer")

Decorate Functions

If you do not want pyPMatch to mess with your code, you can still use the pattern matching in the form of function decorators. You put the pattern as a string into the decorator. The function itself then takes the variables of the pattern as parameters.

from pmatch import case

@case("17")
def test_me():
    print("This is correct!")

@case("11 | 13 | 17 | 19")
def test_me():
    print("At least, it's still a prime number")

@case("i @ int()")
def test_me(i):
    print("The result", i, "is wrong")

@case("x")
def test_me(x):
    print("Not even an integer?", x)

test_me(sum([2, 3, 5, 7]))

NB: Using decorators is, after all, not a particularly good idea for this library. The reason is that, in contrast to pre-compiling modules, not all names can be properly resolved. You might therefore end up with some surprises, or even crashes.

How To Write Patterns

Patterns can be expressed using the elements described below.

As mentioned above: not everything is fully implemented and tested, yet! In particular, there is only limited support for A + B at the moment.

• Foo() matches all instances of the class Foo;
• Foo(A, B, C) deconstructs an instance of Foo, which must yield three values, which then must match the patterns A, B, and C, respectively;
• Foo(egg=A, ham=B) matches all instances of Foo, where the attributes egg, and ham match the patterns A and B, respectively;
• 12, 'abc', True and other constants match a value if the value is equal to the constant;
• { 'a': A, 'b': B } matches if the value has an element 'a', as well as an element 'b', which match A and B, respectively. The value can be dictionary, but it does not have to be. You can also check for specific elements within a list, say, using { 2: A, 5: B };
• {'RE'} matches if the value is a string that conforms to the regular expression given;
• {foo} matches any value V of type string, for which V.isfoo() evaluates to True. For instance, {lower} will match any string for which V.islower() is true;
• A | B | C matches if at least one of the patterns A, B, C matches;
• [A, B, C, ..., D, E] matches any sequence where the first three elements match A, B, and C and the last two elements match D, and E, respectively. This also includes Python's usual iterator unpacking, such as [a, b, *c, d], which is interpreted as [a, b, c @ ..., d];
• A + B matches a string if it can be decomposed into the parts A and B. For instance, '(' + x + ')' matches any string that has some text enclosed in parentheses, and returns the middle part as x;
• x @ A matches if the pattern A matches, and binds the value to the variable x if the entire match is successful;
• _ is a wildcard that matches everything;
• *_ and ... are wildcards used in sequences, usually with the exact same meaning;
• x is an abbreviation for x @ _, matches everything, and binds it to x.

There are some special cases, and limitations you should be aware of:

• Any variable x can only be bound once inside a single pattern (a case statement). It is legal to reuse x in different case statements, but you cannot have something like Foo(x, x). If you need to test if both values in Foo are equal, use Foo(x, y) if x == y instead;
• You cannot bind anything inside an alternative. Hence, A|(x @ B)|C is illegal;
• It is not possible to bind anything to the wildcard _. While _ is a regular name in Python, it has special meaning in pyPMatch patterns. Something like _ @ A is, however, not illegal, but equivalent to A();
• Even though the ellipsis ... is a 'normal value' in Python, it has a special meaning in pyPMatch as a wildcard;
• If you want to make sure you have a dictionary with certain keys/values, { ... } will not suffice. Use the syntax dict({ 'key': value, ... }) instead;
• Instead of writing a regular expression on your own, you can use {int}, or {float} to check if a string value contains an int, or a float, respectively;
• pyPMatch does not look at the names involved. If a name is followed by parentheses as in Foo(), the name is taken to refer to a class/type, against which the value is tested. Otherwise, the name is a variable that will match any value. This means that the pattern str will match everything and override the variable str in the process, while str() will test if the value is a string;
• There are a few exceptions to the last rule. Since name bindings are illegal in alternatives, anyway, you can write A|B|C as an abbreviation for A()|B()|C(). Furthermore, x @ A is interpreted as x @ A(), since it makes no sense to bind two distinct variables to the exact same value;
• Since a variable cannot be of the form a.b, an attribute a.b by itself is equivalent to a.b();
• 3 | ... | 6 is an abbreviation for the sequence 3|4|5|6. This syntax can be used with integers, and characters (single-character strings). Thus, you can also write 'a' | ... | 'z', for instance. Note, that here you need to write the ellipsis, and cannot use the otherwise equivalent token *_.

Roadmap

• Full support for regular expressions and string matching
• Test suites
• Documentation, tutorials

The Two Versions of the case Statement

There are two version of the case statement. You can either use case inside a match block, or as a standalone statement.

Inside a match block, which is compared against the patterns is specified by match.

def foo(x):
    match x:
        case 'a' | ... | 'z':
            print("Lowercase letter")
        case '0' | ... | '9':
            print("Digit")
        case _:
            print("Something else")

The same could also be written without the match. In that case, you need to specify the value to be tested against the pattern. This done using the as syntax. There is a difference, though. The standalone case statements will all be tested, so that we explicitly need to use return in order to avoid printing "Something else" for everything.

def foo(x):
    case x as 'a' | ... | 'z':
        print("Lowercase letter")
        return
    case x as '0' | ... | '9':
        print("Digit")
        return
    case x as _:
        print("Something else")

At the moment, you cannot put standalone case inside a match block, and, of course, you cannot use a case without specifying the value outside a match block.

FAQ

Can I Use pyPMatch in My Project?

Yes, pyPMatch is released under the Apache 2.0 license, which should allow you to freely use pyPMatch in your own projects. Since the project is currently under heavy development, the pattern matching might fail in unexpected ways, though.

In order to provide this new syntax for pattern matching, pyPMatch needs to translate your code before Python's own parser/compiler can touch it. But, the translation process is design to only modify the bare minimum of your original Python code. No commends are removed, no lines inserted or deleted, and no variables or functions renamed. But since case and match have become keywords, there is a possible incompatibility with your existing code.

In addition to case and match, pyPMatch introduces two more names: __match__, and __matchvalue__, respectively. It is very unlikely, though, that your program uses either of these names.

Why Yet Another Pattern Matching Library/Proposal?

There have been discussions about adding a switch statement, or even pattern matching to Python before (see, e.g., PEP 3103). Hence, pyPMatch is not an new idea. In contrast to most discussion I am aware of so far, this project differs in that my focus is not on the exact syntax, but more on getting the semantics right. And, at the end of the day, I just needed (or let's say 'strongly desired') pattern matching for other projects I am working on.

As such, pyPMatch shows how full pattern matching can be integrated with Python, but there is no claim whatsoever that the syntax used here is the best possible alternative.

Why Not Just Use Regular Expressions?

Regular expressions are great if you want to match a string, say. The pattern matching we provide here, however, works on general Python objects, and not on strings. It is more akin to something like isinstance, or hasattr tests in Python.

How Do I Check If a Value Has a Certain Type?

Due to Python's syntax, something like s: str will not work in order to specify that s should be of type str. What you would usually do in Python is something like isinstance(value, str), which translates directly to:

case str():
    print("We have a string!")

Make sure you put the parentheses after the str, as these parentheses tell pyPMatch that str is supposed to be a class against which to test, and not a new name for the value.

How Do I Check If a Value Has a Certain Attribute?

If you do not care about the class, or type, of an object, but only about its attributes, use the wildcard _ as the class name. The algorithm will then omit the isinstance check, and just test if the object's attributes fulfill the given conditions - which in this case is simply that there is an attribute egg, which can be anything.

case _(egg=_):
    print("We have something with an attribute 'egg'.")

The example above will be translated to a simple test of the form hasattr(value, 'egg').

Can I Nest The Match/Case Structures?

Basically, yes, you can. The only real limitation here is that you cannot put a match directly inside another match, whereas it is no problem to put a match inside a case. That is to say that the following will fail:

match x:
    match y:
        case z:

The reason for this is that match puts the value of the expression x into a local variable (and has some further book-keeping). The second match messes this book-keeping up, and replaces x by y, so that subsequent tests fail. On the other hand, there is hardly any reason why a match inside another match should make sense, anyway.

At the moment, nesting is not yet fully implemented, though. As long you put the match/case structures in separate functions, there is never a problem.

Is This Pattern Matching Library Efficient?

The primary objective of this library is correctness, not efficiency. Once everything runs, there is still time to worry about improving the performance of the library. However, there are some strong limitations to how efficient pattern matching can be done in Python.

Since the matching algorithm must analyse various objects, and classes, each time a matching is performed, there are certainly limitations to the performance a pattern matching algorithm can deliver in Python. If you have something like in the code snippet below, the algorithm must test, if my_value is an instance of Foo, if it has (at least) the attributes eggs and ham, and if the value of the attribute eggs is 123.

match my_value:
    case Foo(eggs=123, ham=x):
        print("A Foo with 123 eggs has ham", x)

In statically compiled languages it is possible to test only once (during compilation) if class Foo has attributes eggs and ham. In Python, however, even the class Foo refers to might change, so that we need to test everything upon each matching attempt.

Another limitations is due to the fact pyPMatch tries to minimize the amount your code needs to be changed. This means that each case statement is treated in isolation from all others, and it is therefore not possible to factor out common parts. Again, there is certainly room for further improvement, but it is not a priority of pyPMatch.

Will It Break My Code If I Use case and match as Variable Names?

There is, of course, always a danger that pyPMatch's compiler will mis-identify one of your variables as a match, or case statement. However, in order to be recognised as a statement, either keyword (case, match) must be the first word on a line, and it cannot be followed by a colon, or an operator (such as an assignment). So, if you have a function called case, the function call case(...) might be interpreted as a case statement, but an assignment like case = ..., say, will not.

Why Did You Use @ for Name Bindings Instead of :=?

Python 3.8 will introduce assignment expressions (see PEP 572). It would therefore be natural to use x := A instead of x @ A for name bindings.

In fact, I am happy to add full support for :=. At the time of writing, however, := is not yet a valid token in Python. Using only := would mean that pyPMatch requires at least Python 3.8, while @ has already become a valid operator in Python 3.5 PEP 465.

Why 1 | ... | 9 Instead of the Simpler 1 ... 9?

The entire syntax of patterns in pyPMatch is based on standard Python syntax. Even though the patterns are semantically nonsense, they are syntactically valid. The sequence 1 ... 9, however, is not a valid sequence in Python, and would issue a syntax error.

There are various reasons for wanting patterns to be valid Python syntax. One of them is that pyPMatch gets away with much less parsing work on its own.

Apart from this issue of pragmatics, writing 1 | ... | 9 seems clearer to me, since 1 ... 9 could also mean that the value has to be the sequence 1, 2, 3, ..., 9 itself. This is, however, a matter of personal taste, and thus debatable.

Why Are There Two Versions of case Statements?

Pattern matching does usually not only come in the form of match blocks. At times, we only want to deconstruct a single value. Python already supports this in part through assignments like a, b, *c = x. Using the standalone version of case, you could write this in the form case x as (a, b, *c):. However, the case statement can do much more than Python's assignment operator.

On the other hand, while developing the library, I wondered if it possible to give meaning to case even outside a match block, so as to make the entire syntax as orthogonal, and as flexible as possible.

As pyPMatch is kind of a prototype, in the end, the standalone variant of case might not survive, and not make it into subsequent versions. For the moment, it remains there to fully test its usefulness.

Why is match Not an Expression as in Scala?

While Scala's syntax and semantics are based on expressions, Python's is not. Compound statements like while, if, for etc. are, as a matter of fact, never expressions in Python, but clearly statements without proper value. Since both match and case statements, as implemented here, are obviously compound statements, it would feel very wrong for Python to try, and make them expressions.

Why Do I Have to Use case _ Instead Of else?

The implementation of pyPMatch is focused on minimising the rewriting of any Python code, or module. It will only translate case, and match, statements where it is pretty certain that such a statement is meant in the first place, leaving all your code around it untouched.

If we were to use else, this means that we would have to put a lot more effort in making sure that no else is replaced where it should remain, leading to longer and more complex code. Moreover, the individual case statements in a match block are actually not linked, but stand as individual statements for themselves. Using else raises therefore a few additional questions concerning the semantics, which need proper answering.

So, in short: using else would lead to a more brittle syntax with quite a few corner cases not covered.

How About Some Proper Documentation?

First priority is currently given to getting the library fully operational, and adding various test cases. Once that is complete, documentation will follow (and, after all, there is already a rather long README with lots of information, as well as several examples). If you have a specific question or concern, open an issue, or write to me directly.

Contributors

• Tobias Kohn