illegal pattern in map of Erlang

Question

The code is below:

-module(map_demo).
-export([count_characters/1]).

count_characters(Str) ->
count_characters(Str, #{}).

count_characters([H|T], #{ H => N } = X) ->
    count_characters(T, X#{ H := N+1 });
count_characters([H|T], X) ->
    count_characters(T, X#{ H => 1});
count_characters([], X) ->
    X.

when compiling the code in the Erlang shell, it reported the following errors:

1> c(map_demo).
map_demo.erl:7: illegal pattern
map_demo.erl:8: variable 'N' is unbound
map_demo.erl:10: illegal use of variable 'H' in map
map_demo.erl:7: Warning: variable 'H' is unused
error

I'm new in Erlang, and just can't find anything wrong by myself. How to correct it?

Answer 1

The answers from IRC (#erlang@freenode):

1. variables as keys in matches are not supported yet (release 17.0)
2. A more general issue affects matching arguments of a function: line 7's H is matched 2 times; or once and used to match N then. (This issue also appears with binaries)

This should be solved in the coming releases.

As of release 17 this works:

-module(count_chars).
-export([count_characters/1]).

count_characters(Str) ->
        count_characters(Str, #{}).

%% maps module functions cannot be used as guards (release 17)
%% or you'll get "illegal guard expression" error
count_characters([H|T], X) ->
    case maps:is_key(H,X) of
        false -> count_characters(T, maps:put(H,1,X));
        true  -> Count = maps:get(H,X),
                         count_characters(T, maps:update(H,Count+1,X))
    end;
count_characters([], X) ->
        X.

Here is another version (only tested on 18) that is slightly more similar to the one in the book:

-module(count_chars).
-export([count_characters/1]).

count_characters(Str) ->
        count_characters(Str, #{}).

count_characters([H|T], X) ->
    case maps:is_key(H,X) of
        false -> count_characters(T, X#{ H => 1 });
        true  -> #{ H := Count } = X,
                 count_characters(T, X#{ H := Count+1 })
    end;
count_characters([], X) ->
        X.