Module 06 TODO 3: what's the idiomatic match-case for 'editor' or 'author'?

[dab00gieman]

python-study-Neo_1/curriculum/06_control_flow/exercises.py, TODO 3:

# Write a match-case statement for the variable 'role' below:
# - If role is "admin", print "Full access"
# - If role is "editor" or "author", print "Write access"

For the combined branch, is case "editor" | "author": the idiomatic answer you had in mind (pattern union), versus two separate case arms falling through? And is the convention that solutions go into answers/exercise6/ style folders per the README's curriculum map, with the exercise file itself left blank?

[mgkvibez]

Yes — the OR-pattern is the idiomatic form:

match role:
    case "admin":
        print("Full access")
    case "editor" | "author":
        print("Write access")
    case "guest":
        print("Read access")
    case _:
        print("No access")

Two things worth pinning while you're learning match:

• case "editor" | "author": is an OR-pattern — matches if any alternative matches. This is the construct you reach for by default.
• The common mistake is case ("editor", "author"): — parentheses without | form a tuple literal pattern, which matches an actual 2-tuple whose elements are those strings — i.e., it matches ("editor", "author"), never the string "editor". It fails silently in tests (no error, just no match), so it's the classic footgun here.
• For pre-3.10 code the equivalent idiom is if role in ("editor", "author"): — and case _: plays the role of the final else.

The wildcard case _: at the end is also required for the spec's "otherwise" — without it, an unknown role matches nothing and the match silently does nothing (no No access printed).