Pattern matching was introduced in C# 7.0.

The if statement can use the is keyword in combination with declaring a local variable.

object o = "8";
int a = 3;
 
// Check if the variable 'o' is of type int.
if (o is int b)
{
    var p = a * b;
}

The case values can be patterns.

Match a stream:

using System.IO;
...
var path = @"C:\Temp\Data";
var message = "";
 
// Open a file as a writeable stream.
Stream s = File.Open(Path.Combine(path, "data.txt"), FileMode.OpenOrCreate);
 
switch(s)
{
    // perform more specific pattern matching
    case FileStream writeableFile when s.CanWrite:
        message = "The stream is a writeable file."; 
        break;
    case FileStream readOnlyFile:
        message = "The stream is a read-only file."; 
        break;
    case MemoryStream ms:
        message = "The stream is a memory address."; 
        break;
    // always evaluated last
    default: 
        message = "The stream is some other type.";
        break;
    case null:
        message = "The stream is null.";
        break;
}
...

The same code as above using the switch expression:

...
var message = s switch
{
    FileStream writeableFile when s.CanWrite => "The stream is a writeable file.",
    FileStream readOnlyFile => "The stream is a read-only file.",
    MemoryStream ms => "The stream is a memory address.",
    null => "The stream is null.",
    _ => "The stream is some other type."
};
...

• MSDN: Pattern Matching
• .NET Blog: Patterns and Switch Expressions