Tupple Pattern Matching

Have you ever found yourself working with tuples in C# and wished there was a more concise way to handle different combinations of values? Well, my friend, I have some good news for you: C# has added a new feature called “tuple pattern matching” that makes it easier to work with tuples. In this article, I’ll dive deep into this feature and show you how to use it in your code with code examples.

So, what exactly is tuple pattern matching? It’s a way to match different combinations of values in a tuple and execute different code blocks depending on the values. In other words, you can use tuple pattern matching to write more concise and readable code when working with tuples.

Here’s an example of how you might use tuple pattern matching to handle different combinations of values in a tuple:

(int x, int y) = (1, 2);

switch (x, y)
{
    case (0, 0):
        Console.WriteLine("The values are both 0.");
        break;
    case (1, 2):
        Console.WriteLine("The values are 1 and 2.");
        break;
    case (int a, int b) when a + b == 3:
        Console.WriteLine("The values add up to 3.");
        break;
    default:
        Console.WriteLine("The values don't match any cases.");
        break;
}

In this example, the switch statement is using tuple pattern matching to match different combinations of values in the tuple (x, y). Depending on the values of x and y, the switch statement will execute different code blocks. For example, if x and y are both 0, the first case will be executed. If x is 1 and y is 2, the second case will be executed. And if the sum of x and y is 3, the third case will be executed.

Note that you can also use tuple pattern matching with the if statement:

(int x, int y) = (2, 1);

if ((x, y) is (0, 0))
{
    Console.WriteLine("The values are both 0.");
}
else if ((x, y) is (2, 1))
{
    Console.WriteLine("The values are 2 and 1.");
}
else
{
    Console.WriteLine("The values don't match any cases.");
}

Extracting values from Nested Tupples

Tuple pattern matching can also be used to extract values from nested tuples:

((int x, int y), int z) = ((10, 20), 30);

if (x == 10 && y == 20 && z == 30)
{
    Console.WriteLine("The tuple contains the values 10, 20, and 30.");
}

In this example, the values of x, y, and z are extracted from the nested tuple ((10, 20), 30) using tuple pattern matching. The values of x, y, and z are then compared to 10, 20, and 30, respectively, and a message is written to the console if all conditions are met.

Video

Here is a video demoing some of the above concepts in C#.

Conclution

This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to tuple pattern matching in C#. With this feature, you can handle different combinations of values in tuples more easily and with less code. So, if you’re working with tuples and haven’t tried tuple pattern matching yet, now is the time! I hope this article has given you a good introduction to the topic.