# Patroonherkenning

Wanneer je informatie haalt (‘get’) van de Time State of gegevens in de Time State vastlegd (‘set’), kun je ook complexere waarden gebruiken dan de basissymbolen zoals ‘:foo’ en ‘:bar’. Je kan bijvoorbeeld paden in een URL-stijl gebruiken zoals ‘/foo/bar/baz’. Zodra we zulke paden gaan gebruiken, kunnen we voordeel halen uit de slimme patroonherkenning van Sonic Pi, zodat we met vergelijkbare (‘similar’) in plaats van precies gelijke (‘identical’) paden kunnen halen (‘get’) en synchroniseren (‘sync’). Laten we eens kijken.

## Match any path segment

Let’s assume we want to wait for the next event that has three path segments:

    sync "/*/*/*"

This will match any Time State event with exactly three path segments, regardless of their names. For example:

`cue "/bla/bar/baz"` `cue "/bla/baz/quux"` `cue "/eggs/beans/toast"` `cue "/moog/synths/rule"`

However, it will not match paths with fewer or more path segments. The following will not match:

`cue "/bla/bar"` `cue "/bla/baz/quux/quaax"` `cue "/eggs"`

Each `*` means any content. So we could match paths with just one segment with `/*` or paths with five segments with `/*/*/*/*/*`

## Matching partial segments

foo

`cue "/bla/bar/baz"` `cue "/bla/baz/baz"` `cue "/bla/beans/baz"`

However, it wouldn’t match the following:

`cue "/bla/flibble/baz"` `cue "/bla/abaz/baz"` `cue "/bla/beans/baz/eggs"`

foo

## Matching Nested Path Segments

foo

`cue "/bla/bar/baz"` `cue "/bla/bar/beans/baz"` `cue "/bla/baz"` `cue "/bla/a/b/c/d/e/f/baz"`

## Matching Single Letters

You can use the `?` character to match against a single char such as `"/?oo/bar/baz"` which will match:

`cue "/bla/bar/baz"` `cue "/goo/bar/baz"` `cue "/too/bar/baz"` `cue "/woo/bar/baz"`

## Matching Multiple Words

foo

`cue "/bla/bar/quux"` `cue "/bla/beans/quux"` `cue "/bla/eggs/quux"`

## Matching Multiple Letters

foo

`cue "/bla/aux/baz"` `cue "/bla/bux/baz"` `cue "/bla/cux/baz"`

foo

`cue "/bla/aux/baz"` `cue "/bla/bux/baz"` `cue "/bla/cux/baz"` `cue "/bla/dux/baz"` `cue "/bla/eux/baz"`

## Combining Matchers

When calling `sync` or `get` you are free to combine matchers in any order you see fit to powerfully match any Time State event created by `cue` or `set`. Let’s look at a crazy example:

    sample :loop_amen

## OSC Pattern Matching

For those curious, these matching rules are based on the Open Sound Control pattern matching specification which is explained in detail here: http://opensoundcontrol.org/spec-1_0