In traditional programming languages like C and C++, we often use switch-case statements to control the flow of the program. I'm curious about what construct serves a similar purpose in functional programming languages. How do they implement this kind of logic?
3 Answers
Some languages provide direct alternatives to switch-case, while others rely more on pattern matching. So, it's pretty language-dependent. For example, languages like Haskell or Scala make heavy use of pattern matching which effectively replaces the switch-case structure.
You could also handle logic using chained if/else statements. Here's a quick example:
```
if x == 1 {
// case 1
} else if x == 2 {
// case 2
} else if x == 3 {
// case 3
} else {
// default case
}
```
While not as clean as switch-case, it works in scenarios where functional features aren't available.
In functional programming, one common approach is to use pattern matching. This allows you to handle different cases based on the structure of the data rather than its value. Depending on the language, it might look something like this:
```
match
| => ...
| => ...
| ...
```
Here, you can match specific values or even decompose the data in more complex ways.
Yeah, but if you're trying to maintain readability, I’d stick to pattern matching or mapping functions where you can!