How about adding a syntax for one-line pattern matching: <expr> in <pattern> ? [1, 2, 3] in x, y, z #=> true (with assigning 1 to x, 2 to y, and 3 to z) [1, 2, 3] in 1, 2, 4 #=> false More realistic example: json = { name: "ko1", age: 39, address: { postal: 123, city: "Taito-ku" } } if json in { name:, age: (20..), address: { city: "Taito-ku" } } p name #=> "ko1" else raise "wrong format" end It i