Function matching w/ "abc" ++ Rest

[Peter-Henry Mander]

Assuming tha code was supposed to read:

f1("abc" ++ Rest) ->
 abc;
f1("def" ++ Rest) ->
 def;

You would be better off writing:

f1([$a,$b,$c|_Rest]) -> abc;
f1([$d,$e,$f|_Rest]) -> def.

Pete.

On Fri, 2005-12-09 at 07:01 +0100, dizzyd wrote:
> A general Erlang theory/performance question...
> 
> If I define a series of functions like so:
> 
> 
> f1("abc" ++ Rest) ->
>   abc;
> f1("def" ++ Rest) ->
>   def;
> 
> 
> Is that ++ operator creating a new list and appending to it for the match? Are there scary amounts of list comparisons and overhead happening here? There doesn't seem to be anything about this form in the Erlang docs, yet it works. What's going on? 
> 
> Thanks![/list]
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