# Algebraic data types are not exhaustive

**URL:** <https://discuss.kotlinlang.org/t/algebraic-data-types-are-not-exhaustive/1857>\
**Category:** Language Design\
**Created:** [July 10, 2016, 10:19am UTC](https://discuss.kotlinlang.org/t/algebraic-data-types-are-not-exhaustive/1857 "2016-07-10T10:19:26Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 5

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**Author:** ![yole](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/discuss.kotlinlang.org/yole/32/1425_2.png) [@yole](https://discuss.kotlinlang.org/u/yole)\
**Post date:** [July 11, 2016, 9:07am UTC](https://discuss.kotlinlang.org/t/algebraic-data-types-are-not-exhaustive/1857/5 "2016-07-11T09:07:30Z")

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There are plenty of cases where you need to handle just a few options out of all the possibilities and ignore the rest. We decided against requiring you to write something like `else -> /* do nothing */` in such statements.

We’ve discussed the possibility of adding explicit syntax for “exhaustive when” but didn’t see any option that we liked.

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