Sometimes it's useful to bind variables against overlapping parts of a structure. For instance, suppose I'm writing a pattern that is to be matched against multivalues like `([10, 20], 'true)`. And suppose I want to end up with `ys` bound to `[10, 20]`, `x` bound to `10`, and `xs` bound to `[20]`. Using the techniques introduced so far, I have two options. First, I could bind `ys` against `[10, 20]`, and then initiate a second pattern-match to break that up into `10` and `[20]`. Like this:
case ([10, 20], 'true) of
- [ys, _] then case ys of
+ (ys, _) then case ys of
x & xs then ...;
...
end;
Alternatively, I could directly bind `x` against `10` and `xs` against `[20]`. But then I would have to re-cons them together again to get `ys`. Like this:
case ([10, 20], 'true) of
- [x & xs, _] then let
+ (x & xs, _) then let
ys match x & xs
in ...;
...
Both of these strategies work. But they are a bit inefficient. I said you didn't really need to worry about efficiency in this seminar. But these are also a bit cumbersome to write. There's a special syntax that enables us to bind all three of `ys`, `x`, and `xs` in the desired way, despite the fact that they will be matching against overlapping, rather than discrete, parts of the value `[10, 20]`. The special syntax looks like this:
case ([10, 20], 'true) of
- [(x & xs) as ys, _] then ...
+ ((x & xs) as ys, _) then ...
...
end