How is this not pattern matching? In Scala, I would write: enum Expr: case INT(value: Int) case ADD(left: Expr, right: Expr) case MULT(left, Exp

How is this not pattern matching? In Scala, I would write: enum Expr: case INT(value: Int) case ADD(left: Expr, right: Expr) case MULT(left, Expr, right: Expr) def eval(e: Expr): Int = e match case INT(value) => value case ADD(l, r) => eval(l) + eval(r) case MULT(l, r) => eval(l) + eval(r) This "match" syntax is the example given in the Scala docs for Pattern Matching: https://docs.scala-lang.org/tour/pattern-matching.html https://docs.scala-lang.org/tour/pattern-matching.html The fact that Java happens to use "switch" instead of "match" is one of syntax, not semantics. JDK 17/18 introduces Sealed Types, which allow you to create ADT's sealed interface Expr { record INT(Integer value) implements Expr {} record ADD(Expr l, Expr r) implements Expr {} // etc } When you "switch" over sealed types, the switch expression is exhaustive if all members have branches and requires no default case + is typesound.