Can pattern variables be globally bound?

[Ryan Rawson]

You are correct.  Essentially when X != 0, you are trying to
essentially say "b IFF X*10  == X".  Which is generally not true :-) 
So you get a case clause exception.

The subject line is a little misleading, since variables can only
exist in the context of a single function "scope" - with lexical
scoping rules of course for fun()s.

"Global" variables can be accomplished with the process dictionary or
ets or mnesia tables.  There are other techniques, like using a
gen_server to maintain state across requests (using recursion/tail
recusion).

-ryan

On 3/25/06, Roger Price <rprice@REDACTED> wrote:
> The following program:
>
> -module(test) .           %  1
> -export([test/1]) .       %  2
> test (X) ->               %  3
>   case X*10               %  4
>   of 0 -> a               %  5
>   ;  X -> b               %  6
>   end .                   %  7
>
> compiles with no warnings, and provides the following output:
>
> Eshell V5.4.9  (abort with ^G)
> 1> test:test(0) .
> a
> 2> test:test(1) .
>
> =ERROR REPORT==== 25-Mar-2006::14:20:45 ===
> Error in process <0.31.0> with exit value:
> {{case_clause,10},[{test,test,1},{shell,exprs,6},{shell,eval_loop,3}]}
>
> My understanding of the error message is that the pattern variable X on
> line 6 is already bound to the value 1, and therefore no match is possible
> for value 10.  Is this correct?
>
> Roger
>