Patternquote

Patternquote is a hypothetical construct described in discussions of pattern matching and templating systems. It refers to a mechanism that marks a segment of a pattern or template as a literal representation of a pattern, rather than as something to be interpreted or bound by the matching engine. In practical terms, patternquote allows developers to produce or inspect pattern templates themselves without triggering pattern-variable bindings or tokenization inside the quoted region.

Etymology and scope

The term combines “pattern” and “quote,” drawing on familiar quoting concepts from programming languages where quoted content is treated as data. Patternquote is typically presented as an optional or extension feature in theoretical language designs and in some experimental templating frameworks. It is not a universally standardized feature, and its exact syntax and semantics vary between proposals and implementations.

Syntax and semantics

In systems that illustrate patternquote, a quoted segment is exempt from normal pattern evaluation. Inside a patternquote region, special characters such as braces, wildcards, or variable placeholders are treated as literal text. Outside the quoted region, standard pattern matching and variable binding apply. Some designs allow nesting of patternquote segments or combining them with anti-quoting to inject evaluated results into a literal pattern template.

Examples

A patternquote("Date: {year}-{month}-{day}") would render or process the literal text with braces intact in contexts where patterns are normally interpreted, while still permitting surrounding rules to bind actual values for year, month, and day. In a template, patternquote("Hello, {user}!") could display the literal placeholder rather than substituting user at that point.

See also

Pattern matching, templating languages, literal expressions, anti-quoting.