The alt combinator replaces an if/else fallback with a reusable function. It applies two functions to the same input and returns the first usable result; otherwise, it returns the second. section 4.6
Find or create a student
An imperative version checks whether findStudent returns a result, then either formats that student or creates one. A functional rewrite composes alt(findStudent, createNewStudent) with csv and append, leaving the branching inside a reusable combinator.
