Mptn is a library for pattern matching with a syntax close to regular expressions and similar semantics. The main difference is that Mptn is supposed to be better suited for the task of morphological analysis. Unlike regular expression libraries, this one does not search for a pattern in a longer string; instead, it attempts to match the entire given string against the pattern. If there are several ways to perform the match, Mptn will list them all (using an iterator).

To distinguish matches from each other, Mptn has named variables. Moreover, a pattern may be associated with every variable name; in this case, the variable will only receive values that match that pattern.

Mptn has extensible syntax: the user of the library can define a procedure to control matching of substrings and variable assignments. Such procedures may be used, for example, to encode alternations.

Given its more specialized purpose, Mptn is not as fast as most regular expression libraries for the task of simply determining whether a given string matches a given pattern. However, for complex patterns involving multiple variable assignments and matcher procedure calls it should be quite effective.