In computer programming languages, a switch statement is a type of selection control mechanism used to allow the value of a variable or expression to change the control flow of program execution via a multiway branch.
Switch statements exist in most high-level imperative programming languages such as Pascal, Ada, C/C++, C# and Java, and in many other types of language, using such keywords as switch, case, select or inspect.
Switch statements come in two main variants: a structured switch, as in Pascal, which takes exactly one branch, and an unstructured switch, as in C, which functions as a type of goto. The main reasons for using a switch include improving clarity, by reducing otherwise repetitive coding, and (if the heuristics permit) also offering the potential for faster execution through easier compiler optimization in many cases.
Read more about Switch Statement: History, Typical Syntax, Semantics, Compilation, Advantages and Disadvantages, Alternative Uses, Alternatives
Famous quotes containing the words switch and/or statement:
“Uncritical semantics is the myth of a museum in which the exhibits are meanings and the words are labels. To switch languages is to change the labels.”
—Willard Van Orman Quine (b. 1908)
“The new statement is always hated by the old, and, to those dwelling in the old, comes like an abyss of skepticism.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)