Conditional (computer Programming) - Case and Switch Statements

Case and Switch Statements

Switch statements (in some languages, case statements or multiway branches) compare a given value with specified constants and take action according to the first constant to match. There is usually a provision for a default action ('else','otherwise') to be taken if no match succeeds. Switch statements can allow compiler optimizations, such as lookup tables. In dynamic languages, the cases may not be limited to constant expressions, and might extend to pattern matching, as in the shell script example on the right, where the '*)' implements the default case as a regular expression matching any string.

Pascal: C: Java: Shell script:
case someChar of 'a': actionOnA; 'x': actionOnX; 'y','z':actionOnYandZ; else actionOnNoMatch; end; switch (someChar) { case 'a': actionOnA; break; case 'x': actionOnX; break; case 'y': case 'z': actionOnYandZ; break; default: actionOnNoMatch; } switch (age) { case 1: System.out.printf("You're one."); break; case 2: System.out.printf("You're two."); break; case 3: System.out.printf("You're three."); break; case 4: System.out.printf("You're four."); break; default: System.out.printf("You're neither!"); break; } case $someChar in a) actionOnA; ;; x) actionOnX; ;; ) actionOnYandZ; ;; *) actionOnNoMatch ;; esac

Read more about this topic:  Conditional (computer Programming)

Famous quotes containing the words case, switch and/or statements:

    A more problematic example is the parallel between the increasingly abstract and insubstantial picture of the physical universe which modern physics has given us and the popularity of abstract and non-representational forms of art and poetry. In each case the representation of reality is increasingly removed from the picture which is immediately presented to us by our senses.
    Harvey Brooks (b. 1915)

    Children ... after a certain age do not welcome parental advice. Occasionally, they may listen to another adult, which is why perhaps people should switch children with their neighbors and friends for a while in the teen years!
    Marian Wright Edelman (20th century)

    The statements of science are hearsay, reports from a world outside the world we know. What the poet tells us has long been known to us all, and forgotten. His knowledge is of our world, the world we are both doomed and privileged to live in, and it is a knowledge of ourselves, of the human condition, the human predicament.
    John Hall Wheelock (1886–1978)