I’ve been in the Elixir world for five years—not super long but also not super short. In this time I have seen lots of code that uses elem/2 but not once have I ever seen a situation where it made code clearer and in fact has always made code less clear. It seems its main use it to “not break pipe…

[image] sodapopcan: The question here is why do you have large tuples? I don’t think I’ve come across one with more than 4 before, though I could be wrong. The type of work I do is very limited to business web apps, but large tuples seem like a massive anti-pattern to me. An example from a pr…

Pattern matching with large tuples is verbose and it’s easy to get the wrong element If you are on control of the data: Use Records to overcome this issue

[image] sodapopcan: t seems its main use it to “not break pipelines.” To put it lightly: this is a non-goal. Agreed, but it has to be noted that then – which solves the problem of not breaking pipelines – was only added in Elixir 1.12. [image] arcanemachine: Sometimes I just want to writ…

Thanks for all the responses? [image] dorgan: Wether or not it’s idiomatic to access a random element of a tuple is a whole different topic. Ya, what I’m really asking is: “Does anyone have an example of an exemplary use of elem/2?” I’ve never been in a situation where I don’t know the size…

[image] BartOtten: If you are on control of the data: Use Records to overcome this issue I particularly wouldn’t use records in elixir, I think the semantics are not particularly well ported. the only use I see for records in elixir is to interact with erlang existing records. I was even thin…

[image] v0idpwn: With regards to elem/2 in pipelines, maybe a credo check for this would be useful. I don’t actually have a problem with it in any apps I work on, even at work, was just generally looking for a case where pattern matching isn’t better. Though it could actually be a fun but ja…

[image] cevado: but I guess i’m going too off-topic here :smile: Everyone is always free to go off topic in any thread I create :sweat_smile:

[image] sodapopcan: It seems its main use it to “not break pipelines.” To put it lightly: this is a non-goal. It’s main use is accessing a tuple value using an index, which works no matter the size of tuple and in context, where pattern matching is not an option. Just like there’s :erlang.map…

[image] LostKobrakai: Usually one would likely use maps for such a usecase, but sticking to tuples for performance sensitive calls like around tracing is also a good idea. Agreed about performance. I see nothing that does not allow for multi-headed case however. I still don’t see the value of…

[image] sodapopcan: IMO if we ever see an Elixir 2.0 this function should be removed from the language. But please tell me why elem/2 is indispensable to your Elixir work! I realize I’m using very dismissive language but I’m genuinely curious if there is a good use-case for it I’ve never thought…

Short short version: elem/2 exists because typing :erlang.element is too many characters. [image] BartOtten: If you are on control of the data: Use Records to overcome this issue Record also provides some examples of places where elem (or it’s Erlang equivalent) are useful, for instance is_r…