Switch Statement
Structure of a switch Statement
The basic structure of a switch statement includes:
- The switch keyword followed by an expression in parentheses.
- A series of case labels, each representing a specific value that the expression can take.
- A default case, which is optional and executes if none of the case values match the expression.
Example
using System;
class Program
{
static void Main()
{
int dayOfWeek = 5;
switch (dayOfWeek)
{
case 1:
Console.WriteLine(“Monday”);
break;
case 2:
Console.WriteLine(“Tuesday”);
break;
case 3:
Console.WriteLine(“Wednesday”);
break;
case 4:
Console.WriteLine(“Thursday”);
break;
case 5:
Console.WriteLine(“Friday”);
break;
case 6:
Console.WriteLine(“Saturday”);
break;
case 7:
Console.WriteLine(“Sunday”);
break;
default:
Console.WriteLine(“Invalid day of the week”);
break;
}
}
}
Explanation of the Example
- The variable dayOfWeek is initialized to the value 5.
- The switch statement evaluates the value of dayOfWeek.
- It matches the value with the appropriate case label.
- When dayOfWeek is 5, the corresponding block of code for case 5 is executed, printing “Friday” to the console.
- The break statement is used to terminate the switch block and prevent the execution from falling through to subsequent cases.
- The default case provides a fallback option if none of the case labels match the value of dayOfWeek. In this case, it prints “Invalid day of the week.“
Advantages of Using switch
Limitations in switch statement
- Switch statements can only evaluate discrete values (such as integers, characters, and strings) and cannot handle ranges or complex conditions.
- Every case should end with a break, return, or goto statement to prevent fall-through, except when intentionally leveraging fall-through logic.