PHP: match - Manual

match

(PHP 8)

The match expression branches evaluation based on an identity check of a value. Similarly to a switch statement, a match expression has a subject expression that is compared against multiple alternatives. Unlike switch, it will evaluate to a value much like ternary expressions. Unlike switch, the comparison is an identity check (===) rather than a weak equality check (==). Match expressions are available as of PHP 8.0.0.

Example #1 Structure of a match expression

<?php
$return_value = match (subject_expression) {
    single_conditional_expression => return_expression,
    conditional_expression1, conditional_expression2 => return_expression,
};
?>

Example #2 Basic match usage

<?php
$food = 'cake';

$return_value = match ($food) {
    'apple' => 'This food is an apple',
    'bar' => 'This food is a bar',
    'cake' => 'This food is a cake',
};

var_dump($return_value);
?>

The above example will output:

string(19) "This food is a cake"

Note: The result of a match expression does not need to be used.

Note: A match expression must be terminated by a semicolon ;.

The match expression is similar to a switch statement but has some key differences:

A match arm compares values strictly (===) instead of loosely as the switch statement does.
A match expression returns a value.
match arms do not fall-through to later cases the way switch statements do.
A match expression must be exhaustive.

As switch statements, match expressions are executed match arm by match arm. In the beginning, no code is executed. The conditional expressions are only evaluated if all previous conditional expressions failed to match the subject expression. Only the return expression corresponding to the matching conditional expression will be evaluated. For example:

<?php
$result = match ($x) {
    foo() => ...,
    $this->bar() => ..., // $this->bar() isn't called if foo() === $x
    $this->baz => beep(), // beep() isn't called unless $x === $this->baz
    // etc.
};
?>

match expression arms may contain multiple expressions separated by a comma. That is a logical OR, and is a short-hand for multiple match arms with the same right-hand side.

<?php
$result = match ($x) {
    // This match arm:
    $a, $b, $c => 5,
    // Is equivalent to these three match arms:
    $a => 5,
    $b => 5,
    $c => 5,
};
?>

A special case is the default pattern. This pattern matches anything that wasn't previously matched. For example:

<?php
$expressionResult = match ($condition) {
    1, 2 => foo(),
    3, 4 => bar(),
    default => baz(),
};
?>

Note: Multiple default patterns will raise a E_FATAL_ERROR error.

A match expression must be exhaustive. If the subject expression is not handled by any match arm an UnhandledMatchError is thrown.

Example #3 Example of an unhandled match expression

<?php
$condition = 5;

try {
    match ($condition) {
        1, 2 => foo(),
        3, 4 => bar(),
    };
} catch (\UnhandledMatchError $e) {
    var_dump($e);
}
?>

The above example will output:

object(UnhandledMatchError)#1 (7) {
  ["message":protected]=>
  string(33) "Unhandled match value of type int"
  ["string":"Error":private]=>
  string(0) ""
  ["code":protected]=>
  int(0)
  ["file":protected]=>
  string(9) "/in/ICgGK"
  ["line":protected]=>
  int(6)
  ["trace":"Error":private]=>
  array(0) {
  }
  ["previous":"Error":private]=>
  NULL
}

Using match expressions to handle non identity checks

It is possible to use a match expression to handle non-identity conditional cases by using true as the subject expression.

Example #4 Using a generalized match expressions to branch on integer ranges

<?php

$age = 23;

$result = match (true) {
    $age >= 65 => 'senior',
    $age >= 25 => 'adult',
    $age >= 18 => 'young adult',
    default => 'kid',
};

var_dump($result);
?>

The above example will output:

string(11) "young adult"

Example #5 Using a generalized match expressions to branch on string content

<?php

$text = 'Bienvenue chez nous';

$result = match (true) {
    str_contains($text, 'Welcome') || str_contains($text, 'Hello') => 'en',
    str_contains($text, 'Bienvenue') || str_contains($text, 'Bonjour') => 'fr',
    // ...
};

var_dump($result);
?>

The above example will output:

string(2) "fr"

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User Contributed Notes 8 notes

down

darius dot restivan at gmail dot com ¶

3 years ago


This will allow for a nicer FizzBuzz solution:

<?php

function fizzbuzz($num) {
    print match (0) {
        $num % 15 => "FizzBuzz" . PHP_EOL,
        $num % 3  => "Fizz" . PHP_EOL,
        $num % 5  => "Buzz" . PHP_EOL,
        default   => $num . PHP_EOL,
    };
}

for ($i = 0; $i <=100; $i++)
{
    fizzbuzz($i);
}

down

Anonymous ¶

3 years ago


<?php

function days_in_month(string $month, $year): int

{

    return match(strtolower(substr($month, 0, 3))) {

        'jan' => 31,

        'feb' => is_leap($year) ? 29 : 28,

        'mar' => 31,

        'apr' => 30,

        'may' => 31,

        'jun' => 30,

        'jul' => 31,

        'aug' => 31,

        'sep' => 30,

        'oct' => 31,

        'nov' => 30,

        'dec' => 31,

        default => throw new InvalidArgumentException("Bogus month"),

    };

}

?>



can be more concisely written as



<?php

function days_in_month(string $month, $year): int

{

    return match(strtolower(substr($month, 0, 3))) {

        'apr', 'jun', 'sep',  'nov'  => 30,        

        'jan', 'mar', 'may', 'jul', 'aug',  'oct', 'dec'  => 31,

        'feb' => is_leap($year) ? 29 : 28,

        default => throw new InvalidArgumentException("Bogus month"),

    };

}

?>

down

Hayley Watson ¶

4 years ago


As well as being similar to a switch, match expressions can be thought of as enhanced lookup tables — for when a simple array lookup isn't enough without extra handling of edge cases, but a full switch statement would be overweight.



For a familiar example, the following

<?php



function days_in_month(string $month): int

{

    static $lookup = [

    'jan' => 31,

    'feb' => 0,

    'mar' => 31,

    'apr' => 30,

    'may' => 31,

    'jun' => 30,

    'jul' => 31,

    'aug' => 31,

    'sep' => 30,

    'oct' => 31,

    'nov' => 30,

    'dec' => 31

    ];



    $name = strtolower(substr($name, 0, 3));



    if(isset($lookup[$name])) {

        if($name == 'feb') {

            return is_leap($year) ? 29 : 28;

        } else {

            return $lookup[$name];

        }

    }

    throw new InvalidArgumentException("Bogus month");

}



?>



with the fiddly stuff at the end, can be replaced by



<?php

function days_in_month(string $month): int

{

    return match(strtolower(substr($month, 0, 3))) {

        'jan' => 31,

        'feb' => is_leap($year) ? 29 : 28,

        'mar' => 31,

        'apr' => 30,

        'may' => 31,

        'jun' => 30,

        'jul' => 31,

        'aug' => 31,

        'sep' => 30,

        'oct' => 31,

        'nov' => 30,

        'dec' => 31,

        default => throw new InvalidArgumentException("Bogus month"),

    };

}

?>



Which also takes advantage of "throw" being handled as of PHP 8.0 as an expression instead of a statement.

down

Sbastien ¶

1 year ago


I use match instead of storing PDOStatement::rowCount() result and chaining if/elseif conditions or use the ugly switch/break :

<?php

$sql = <<<SQL
    INSERT INTO ...
    ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE ...
    SQL;

$upkeep = $pdo->prepare($sql);

$count_untouched = 0;
$count_inserted = 0;
$count_updated = 0;

foreach ($data as $record) {
    $upkeep->execute($record);
    match ($upkeep->rowCount()) {
        0 => $count_untouched++,
        1 => $count_inserted++,
        2 => $count_updated++,
    };
}

echo "Untouched rows : {$count_untouched}\r\n";
echo "Inserted rows : {$count_inserted}\r\n";
echo "Updated rows : {$count_updated}\r\n";

down

thomas at zuschneid dot de ¶

1 year ago


While match allows chaining multiple conditions with ",", like:
<?php
$result = match ($source) {
    cond1, cond2 => val1,
    default => val2
};
?>
it seems not valid to chain conditions with default, like:
<?php
$result = match ($source) {
    cond1 => val1,
    cond2, default => val2
};
?>

down

php at joren dot dev ¶

2 years ago


If you want to execute multiple return expressions when matching a conditional expression, you can do so by stating all return expressions inside an array.

<?php
    $countries = ['Belgium', 'Netherlands'];
    $spoken_languages = [
        'Dutch' => false,
        'French' => false,
        'German' => false,
        'English' => false,
    ];

    foreach ($countries as $country) {
        match($country) {
            'Belgium' => [
                $spoken_languages['Dutch'] = true,
                $spoken_languages['French'] = true,
                $spoken_languages['German'] = true,
            ],
            'Netherlands' => $spoken_languages['Dutch'] = true,
            'Germany' => $spoken_languages['German'] = true,
            'United Kingdom' => $spoken_languages['English'] = true,
        };
    }

    var_export($spoken_languages); 
    // array ( 'Dutch' => true, 'French' => true, 'German' => true, 'English' => false, )

?>

down

mark at manngo dot net ¶

2 years ago


While you can’t polyfill a language construct, you can mimic the basic behaviour with a simple array.

Using example 2 above:

<?php
    $food = 'apple';
    $return_value = match ($food) {
        'apple' => 'This food is an apple',
        'bar' => 'This food is a bar',
        'cake' => 'This food is a cake',
    };    
    print $return_value;
?>

… you can get something similar with:

<?php
    $food = 'apple';    
    $return_value = [
        'apple' => 'This food is an apple',
        'bar' => 'This food is a bar',
        'cake' => 'This food is a cake',
    ][$food];
    print $return_value;
?>

down

tm ¶

3 years ago


If you are using a match expression for non-identity checks as described above make sure whatever you are using is actually returning `true` on success.

Quite often you rely on truthy vs. falsy when using if conditions and that will not work for match (for example `preg_match`). Casting to bool will solve this issue.

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