The process of identifying, analysing, and interpreting the presence of comparable patterns in objects, events, situations, etc.; (Computing) the use of wildcards or other techniques to detect similar strings of characters, especially in searching for similar types of file, etc.
Origin
1960s.
Definition of pattern matching in US English:
pattern matching
noun
The process of identifying, analysing, and interpreting the presence of comparable patterns in objects, events, situations, etc.; (Computing) the use of wildcards or other techniques to detect similar strings of characters, especially in searching for similar types of file, etc.