---

title: Match Statements

match is Rust’s pattern matching construct — like a switch statement but much more powerful. It must be exhaustive: every possible case must be covered or the compiler will error.

Basic syntax

match value {
    pattern1 => expression1,
    pattern2 => expression2,
    _ => fallback,  // wildcard, matches anything
}

Matching literals

let x = 3;
match x {
    1 => println!("one"),
    2 | 3 => println!("two or three"),  // multiple patterns with |
    4..=6 => println!("four to six"),   // inclusive range
    _ => println!("something else"),
}

Matching enums

enum Direction { North, South, East, West }
 
match dir {
    Direction::North => println!("going north"),
    Direction::South => println!("going south"),
    _ => println!("going east or west"),
}

Destructuring

enum Message {
    Quit,
    Move { x: i32, y: i32 },
    Write(String),
}
 
match msg {
    Message::Quit => println!("quit"),
    Message::Move { x, y } => println!("move to {x}, {y}"),
    Message::Write(text) => println!("write: {text}"),
}

match as an expression

match returns a value, so it can be assigned directly:

let description = match x {
    1 => "one",
    2 => "two",
    _ => "other",
};

Guards

Add extra conditions to a pattern with if:

match x {
    n if n < 0 => println!("negative"),
    n if n == 0 => println!("zero"),
    _ => println!("positive"),
}