Scala string pattern matching by multiple possible groups -

given input map[string,string] such

val in = map("name1"                -> "description1",              "name2.name22"         -> "description 22",              "name3.name33.name333" -> "description 333") 

what simple way extract each name , each description , feed them method such as

def process(description: string, name: string*): unit = name match {   case seq(n)     =>  // find(n).set(description)   case seq(n,m)   =>  // find(n).find(m).set(description)   case seq(n,m,o) =>  // find(n).find(m).find(o).set(description)   case _          =>  // possible error reporting } 

many thanks

you can use splat operator _*:

val in = map("name1" -> "description1",   "name2.name22" -> "description 22",   "name3.name33.name333" -> "description 333")  def process(description: string, name: string*) = ???   in.map { x =>   process(x._2, x._1.split("\\."): _*) } 

note * parameters must come last in function signature (otherwise compiler won't able decide stop).

from repl:

scala>   def process(description: string, name: string*) = {      |     name.foreach(println)      |     println(description)      |   } process: (description: string, name: string*)unit  scala>   in.map { x =>       |    process(x._2, x._1.split("\\."): _*)       |   }     name1     description1     name2     name22     description 22     name3     name33     name333     description 333