Thread: Alternative to switch/case?

Hi I'm new to C and was wondering whether there is a better way to solve my problem than a switch( ) case statment.

I'm trying to decode a byte of data from an ICMP packet, because it's a byte, it can have 256 different values, with most of the values relating to a different piece of content. Currently i am using this method:

Code:

switch (value)

  {

  case 0:    printf("0 echo reply");
     break;

  case 1:    printf("1 unassigned");
     break;

  case 2:    printf("2 unassigned");
     break;

  case 3:    printf("3 destination unreachable")
     break;

  case 4;    printf("4 source quench")
     break;

..... and so on and so on......... until 255

As you can imagine this method is quite time consuming, is there a better/more efficient way to do this?

Any help would be greatly appreciated
Thanks

Code:

const char *content[] = {
  "echo reply",
  "unassigned",
  "unassigned",
  "destination unreachable",
  "source quench"
  ... and so on until 255
};

...

printf ( "%d %s", value, content[value] );