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Pattern Matching — Branching with match and if let

A superior alternative to switch/case, core Rust expression style

C/Java's switch-case only compares values. Rust's match destructures values while branching simultaneously.

match some_option {
    Some(value) => println!("got {value}"),
    None => println!("nothing"),
}

Extracting the value inside Some and branching happen at once. The compiler checks all cases are handled — miss one and it won't compile.

if let is match shorthand for when you care about only one pattern:

if let Some(value) = some_option {
    println!("got {value}");
}

Enums, tuples, structs, references — nearly every Rust type can be destructured via patterns.

Key Points

Value in match expression is matched against each arm pattern in order

Pattern destructures the value and binds to variables

Exhaustive — all possible cases must be handled to compile

_ (wildcard) handles remaining cases at once

Result/Option handling — explicitly branch on success/failure, some/none Enum-based state machines — define behavior per state via patterns