[erlang-questions] case expression scope

[Ivan Uemlianin]

It doesn't quite answer your question but perhaps case was a late 
addition.  Often more concise code avoids it and uses pattern matching 
instead. e.g., your example using pattern matching could be:

f1(0, Y) ->
     {Y, Y};
f1(X, Y) ->
     {X*Y, X+Y}.

Best wishes

Ivan

On 03/03/2014 16:59, Daniel Goertzen wrote:
> One thing that repeatedly bites me is the way variables bindings leak
> out of case expressions.  For example, the following code fails to even
> compile because the Ps and Qs smack into each other...
>
> f1(X, Y) ->
>      A = case {X,Y} of
>              {0, Q} -> Q;
>              {P, Q} -> P*Q
>          end,
>
>      B = case {X,Y} of
>              {0, Q} -> Q;
>              {P, Q} -> P+Q
>          end,
>      {A,B}.
>
>
> In situations like the above, I artificially change the variable names
> to avoid trouble and end up with something like this:
>
> f1(X, Y) ->
>      A = case {X,Y} of
>              {0, Q0} -> Q0;
>              {P0, Q0} -> P0*Q0
>          end,
>
>      B = case {X,Y} of
>              {0, Q1} -> Q1;
>              {P1, Q1} -> P1+Q1
>          end,
>      {A,B}.
>
>
> The binding leakages seems like nothing but hassles and headaches to me,
> so my questions is, is there actually a reason why bindings need leak
> out of case expressions?  Is there a programming style that leverages
> this feature?  Is there a limitation in the emulator that forces it to
> be this way?
>
> I'd love to have a 'hygienic' case expression.  Could it be faked with
> parse transforms?
>
> Dan.
>
>
>
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Ivan A. Uemlianin PhD
Llaisdy
Speech Technology Research and Development

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