MATCH Mini Project — Vending Machine.

The problem...

A vending machine has one job. You pick a product. You insert money. It tells you the price, confirms the purchase, and gives you your change.

Simple logic. Multiple cases. A perfect job for match.

The idea!

match handles the product selection. Guards handle the payment logic. One clean structure — no long if / elif chain in sight.

The menu

# water      — 1.00 EUR
# coffee     — 2.00 EUR
# chips      — 1.50 EUR
# chocolate  — 2.50 EUR

Your mission

Ask the user for a product and the amount inserted. Use match to find the price. Calculate and print the change — or tell them if it's not enough.

The solution

print("Available: water / coffee / chips / chocolate")
product = input("Choose a product: ").lower()
amount = float(input("Insert amount (EUR): "))

match product:
    case "water":
        price = 1.00
    case "coffee":
        price = 2.00
    case "chips":
        price = 1.50
    case "chocolate":
        price = 2.50
    case _:
        print("Product not found.")
        price = None

if price is not None:
    if amount >= price:
        change = amount - price
        print(f"{product.capitalize()} dispensed.")
        print(f"Change: {change:.2f} EUR")
    else:
        print(f"Insufficient funds. {product.capitalize()} costs {price:.2f} EUR.")

Test it

# Choose a product: coffee
# Insert amount (EUR): 5
# Coffee dispensed.
# Change: 3.00 EUR

# Choose a product: chips
# Insert amount (EUR): 1
# Insufficient funds. Chips costs 1.50 EUR.

# Choose a product: pizza
# Product not found.

What's really happening

match identifies the product and sets the price. case _ catches anything that's not on the menu — and sets price to None so the payment logic knows to skip. The if after the match handles the rest.

Go further

• Add more products to the menu
• What happens if the user inserts exactly the right amount? Does it still work?
• Add a "sold out" case for one product — case "water": print("Sold out.")

What you should understand now

• match identifies the case — if handles the logic after
• case _ catches unknown input — always handle it
• None is a safe sentinel value — "nothing was set"
• :.2f formats floats to 2 decimal places — prices look clean