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3 Datum Pattern Matching

 (require syntax/datum) package: base
The syntax/datum library provides forms that implement the pattern and template language of syntax-case, but for matching and constructing datum values instead of syntax.

For most pattern-matching purposes, racket/match is a better choice than syntax/datum. The syntax/datum library is useful mainly for its template support (i.e., datum) and, to a lesser extent, its direct correspondence to syntax-case patterns.

syntax

(datum-case datum-expr (literal-id ...)
  clause ...)

syntax

(datum template)

Like syntax-case and syntax, but datum-expr in datum-case should produce a datum (i.e., plain S-expression) instead of a syntax object to be matched in clauses, and datum similarly produces a datum. Pattern variables bound in each clause of datum-case (or syntax-case, see below) are accessible via datum instead of syntax. When a literal-id appears in a clause’s pattern, it matches the corresponding symbol (using eq?).

Using datum-case and datum is similar to converting the input to syntax-case using datum->syntax and then wrapping each use of syntax with syntax->datum, but datum-case and datum do not create intermediate syntax objects, and they do not destroy existing syntax objects within the S-expression structure of datum-expr.

Example:
> (datum-case '(1 "x" -> y) (->)
    [(a ... -> b) (datum (b (+ a) ...))])

'(y (+ 1) (+ "x"))

The datum form also cooperates with syntax pattern variables such as those bound by syntax-case and attributes bound by syntax-parse (see Pattern Variables and Attributes for more information about attributes). As one consequence, datum provides a convenient way of getting the list of syntax objects bound to a syntax pattern variable of depth 1. For example, the following expressions are equivalent, except that the datum version avoids creating and eliminating a superfluous syntax object wrapper:

> (with-syntax ([(x ...) #'(a b c)])
    (syntax->list #'(x ...)))

'(#<syntax:eval:3:0 a> #<syntax:eval:3:0 b> #<syntax:eval:3:0 c>)

> (with-syntax ([(x ...) #'(a b c)])
    (datum (x ...)))

'(#<syntax:eval:4:0 a> #<syntax:eval:4:0 b> #<syntax:eval:4:0 c>)

A template can also use multiple syntax or datum pattern variables and datum constants, and it can use the ~@ and ~? template forms:

> (with-syntax ([(x ...) #'(a b c)])
    (with-datum ([(y ...) (list 1 2 3)])
      (datum ([x -> y] ...))))

'((#<syntax:eval:5:0 a> -> 1)

  (#<syntax:eval:5:0 b> -> 2)

  (#<syntax:eval:5:0 c> -> 3))

> (with-syntax ([(x ...) #'(a b c)])
    (with-datum ([(y ...) (list 1 2 3)])
      (datum ((~@ x y) ...))))

'(#<syntax:eval:6:0 a> 1 #<syntax:eval:6:0 b> 2 #<syntax:eval:6:0 c> 3)

See Attributes and datum for examples of ~? with datum.

If a datum variable is used in a syntax template, a compile-time error is raised.

Changed in version 7.8.0.9 of package base: Changed datum to cooperate with syntax-case, syntax-parse, etc.

syntax

(with-datum ([pattern datum-expr] ...)
  body ...+)
Analogous to with-syntax, but for datum-case and datum instead of syntax-case and syntax.

Example:
> (with-datum ([(a ...) '(1 2 3)]
               [(b ...) '("x" "y" "z")])
    (datum ((a b) ...)))

'((1 "x") (2 "y") (3 "z"))

syntax

(quasidatum template)

syntax

(undatum expr)

syntax

(undatum-splicing expr)

Analogous to quasisyntax, unsyntax, and unsyntax-splicing.

Example:
> (with-datum ([(a ...) '(1 2 3)])
    (quasidatum ((undatum (- 1 1)) a ... (undatum (+ 2 2)))))

'(0 1 2 3 4)

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