| author | wenzelm |
| Fri, 05 Apr 2024 17:47:09 +0200 | |
| changeset 80086 | 1b986e5f9764 |
| parent 69597 | ff784d5a5bfb |
| permissions | -rw-r--r-- |
(*<*) theory case_exprs imports Main begin (*>*) text\<open> \subsection{Case Expressions} \label{sec:case-expressions}\index{*case expressions}% HOL also features \isa{case}-expressions for analyzing elements of a datatype. For example, @{term[display]"case xs of [] => [] | y#ys => y"} evaluates to \<^term>\<open>[]\<close> if \<^term>\<open>xs\<close> is \<^term>\<open>[]\<close> and to \<^term>\<open>y\<close> if \<^term>\<open>xs\<close> is \<^term>\<open>y#ys\<close>. (Since the result in both branches must be of the same type, it follows that \<^term>\<open>y\<close> is of type \<^typ>\<open>'a list\<close> and hence that \<^term>\<open>xs\<close> is of type \<^typ>\<open>'a list list\<close>.) In general, case expressions are of the form \[ \begin{array}{c} \<open>case\<close>~e~\<open>of\<close>\ pattern@1~\<open>\<Rightarrow>\<close>~e@1\ \<open>|\<close>\ \dots\ \<open>|\<close>~pattern@m~\<open>\<Rightarrow>\<close>~e@m \end{array} \] Like in functional programming, patterns are expressions consisting of datatype constructors (e.g. \<^term>\<open>[]\<close> and \<open>#\<close>) and variables, including the wildcard ``\verb$_$''. Not all cases need to be covered and the order of cases matters. However, one is well-advised not to wallow in complex patterns because complex case distinctions tend to induce complex proofs. \begin{warn} Internally Isabelle only knows about exhaustive case expressions with non-nested patterns: $pattern@i$ must be of the form $C@i~x@ {i1}~\dots~x@ {ik@i}$ and $C@1, \dots, C@m$ must be exactly the constructors of the type of $e$. % More complex case expressions are automatically translated into the simpler form upon parsing but are not translated back for printing. This may lead to surprising output. \end{warn} \begin{warn} Like \<open>if\<close>, \<open>case\<close>-expressions may need to be enclosed in parentheses to indicate their scope. \end{warn} \subsection{Structural Induction and Case Distinction} \label{sec:struct-ind-case} \index{case distinctions}\index{induction!structural}% Induction is invoked by \methdx{induct_tac}, as we have seen above; it works for any datatype. In some cases, induction is overkill and a case distinction over all constructors of the datatype suffices. This is performed by \methdx{case_tac}. Here is a trivial example: \<close> lemma "(case xs of [] \<Rightarrow> [] | y#ys \<Rightarrow> xs) = xs" apply(case_tac xs) txt\<open>\noindent results in the proof state @{subgoals[display,indent=0,margin=65]} which is solved automatically: \<close> apply(auto) (*<*)done(*>*) text\<open> Note that we do not need to give a lemma a name if we do not intend to refer to it explicitly in the future. Other basic laws about a datatype are applied automatically during simplification, so no special methods are provided for them. \begin{warn} Induction is only allowed on free (or \isasymAnd-bound) variables that should not occur among the assumptions of the subgoal; see \S\ref{sec:ind-var-in-prems} for details. Case distinction (\<open>case_tac\<close>) works for arbitrary terms, which need to be quoted if they are non-atomic. However, apart from \<open>\<And>\<close>-bound variables, the terms must not contain variables that are bound outside. For example, given the goal \<^prop>\<open>\<forall>xs. xs = [] \<or> (\<exists>y ys. xs = y#ys)\<close>, \<open>case_tac xs\<close> will not work as expected because Isabelle interprets the \<^term>\<open>xs\<close> as a new free variable distinct from the bound \<^term>\<open>xs\<close> in the goal. \end{warn} \<close> (*<*) end (*>*)