What is 'Pattern Matching' in functional languages?

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Published on 2010-03-23T17:57:36Z Indexed on 2010/03/23 18:53 UTC
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I'm reading about functional programming (in academic purpose) and I've noticed that Pattern Matching is mentioned in many articles as one of the core features of functional languages.

Can someone explain for a java/c++/javascript developer what does it mean?

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