case
case lets you test a value against a set of patterns, executes the code associated with the first one that matches, and returns the value of that code. The patterns may include guard clauses.
For example, the File.open function returns a two-element tuple. If the open is successful, it returns {:ok, file}, where file is an identifier for the open file. If the open fails, it returns {:error, reason}. We can use case to take the appropriate action when we open a file. (In this case the code opens its own source file.)
| control/case.ex | |
| | case File.open("case.ex") do |
| | { :ok, file } -> |
| | IO.puts "First line: #{IO.read(file, :line)}" |
| | { :error, reason } -> |
| | IO.puts "Failed to open file: #{reason}" |
| | end |
produces:
| | First line: case File.open("case.ex") ... |
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