Unlocking the Power of C# Pattern Matching

Using C# Pattern Matching in Your Code: A Tutorial Guide

C# Pattern Matching is a powerful language feature that can help you write cleaner, more efficient code. This tutorial will guide you through the main principles of C# Pattern Matching and provide you with useful examples and tips.

What is C# Pattern Matching?

C# Pattern Matching is a feature introduced in C# 7.0 that allows developers to quickly check whether a given object conforms to a pattern, using switch statements or other conditional operations. This feature is particularly useful when dealing with complex object models. It enables developers to define rules that they can apply to an existing object using a restricted set of patterns.

What are the Benefits of Using C# Pattern Matching?

Using C# Pattern Matching allows developers to:

• Increase code readability by eliminating the need to use multiple nested if-else statements;
• Reduce code complexity by allowing for succinct expressions;
• Improve performance by avoiding costly reflection operations.

Getting Started With C# Pattern Matching

To get started, let's create a simple class:

public class Product {
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public decimal Price { get; set; }
    public string Category { get; set; }
}

Now we can begin implementing C# Pattern Matching in our code. We'll start by creating three separate functions, each responsible for checking the value of the Category property on the Product class.

public static string GetCategory(Product product) 
{
    switch (product.Category) 
    {
        case "Clothing":  return "Fashion";
        case "Electronics":  return "Technology";
        default:  return "Miscellaneous";
    }
}

public static void SetDiscount(Product product) 
{
    int discount = 0;
    switch (product.Category) 
    {
        case "Clothing":  discount = 10; break;
        case "Electronics":  discount = 20; break;
    }
    product.Price = product.Price * (1 - (discount / 100m));
}

public static bool IsExpensive(Product product) 
{
    switch (product.Category) 
    {
        case "Clothing":  return product.Price > 50;
        case "Electronics":  return product.Price > 100;
        default:  return false;
    }
}

As you can see from the code above, each function checks the value of the Category property to determine the result. Using C# Pattern Matching, we have greatly reduced the amount of code needed to achieve the desired result.

Conclusion

In this tutorial, we explored the basics of C# Pattern Matching. We discussed the benefits of using this feature and provided examples of how it can be used to simplify your code. With C# Pattern Matching, you can write clean, readable code that is easier to maintain and faster to execute.