getMultiWordPortion :: String -> String
getMultiWordPortion (x:':':xs) = xs
getMultiWordPortion _ = ""
The expected result from pattern matching in this code is that everything before the first colon get's assigned to x, and everything afterwards gets assigned to xs, which is the result. If there is no colon, nothing is returned.
What actually happens with a sample string I'm using ("PING :gibson.freenode.net" - it's part of an IRC client) is that I get the blank return value.
What am I doing wrong here?