Thread: switch() inside while()

hello all,
say for example I have a switch() inside of a while(), and in one the the cases of my switch(), I use a break statement:

Code:

while(blah) {
	switch(blah) {
	case BLAH:
		break;
	}
}

that would break from the while loop, would it not? I'm in a situation here, because I don't know how I can break the case without breaking the loop. my cases are all very different, I must break from each of them somehow (execution can't "fall through"). I am using the switch() statement instead of a bunch of else ifs, which I would like to avoid using as much as possible (I have alot of conditions to test against).

I am thinking maybe I can change the loops conditional test (to something that will remain true after each case) and use a continue at the end where I would use the break in the case to jump to the loops conditional test and continue with the switch() (if of course the loop's test is still TRUE). but I am wondering if the continue will work on the loop if I place it inside a switch case like that?

if anyone could please help me here, it would be appreciated. thankyou in advance!

> that would break from the while loop, would it not?
No it wouldn't.

run this code to understand better

Code:

#include<stdio.h>

int main()
{
	int ch;

	printf("Enter 4 to exit\n");

	while((ch=getchar())!=4)
	{
		switch(ch)
		{
			case 1:
				printf("Inside the case 1\n");
				break;
			case 2:
				printf("Inside the case 2\n");
				break;
			case 3:
				printf("Inside the case 3\n");
				break;
			default:
				printf("You entered %d but still inside the switch\n",ch);
		}
		printf("Enter 4 to exit\n");
	}
	printf("Out of While loop\n");
	return 0;
}

ssharish2005

Code:

while(blah) {
	switch(blah) {
	case BLAH:
		break;
	}
}

The break and continue statements will work only for their directly related process. You can also break out of nested functions too.

Code:

while( 1 ) {
	for ( i = 0; i < 10; i++ )
	{
		switch(blah) {
			case 1:
			break; //break out of the switch
			
			case 2:
			break;
			break; //break from the switch and the for
			
			case 3:
			break;
			break:
			break; //break from the switch, for and while
			}
			
	}
}

really? dunno why I thought it would break the while(), I remember reading somewhere that a break inside any loop nesting will break out of the closest loop's block.

anyways, good to know that that will not break my loop, and here I was doing it the hard way (I got it to work with continue, but just using break would be a better idea IMO).

thanks guys!