Thread: case/if

A case clause is used in conjunction with a switch statement. One disadvantage of a switch statement compared to if/else statements, is that it only works with ordinal types (int, char).

Most times a switch statement will make your code more readable and well structured.

If usually only use switch statements with constants, enums, etc. eg.

Code:

switch( day )
{
     case MONDAY: 
     case TUESDAY:
     case WEDNESDAY:
     case THURSDAY:
     case FRIDAY:
             printf( "Working day" );
             break;
     case SATURDAY:
     case SUNDAY:
             printf( "No work! Cool" );
             break;
     default:
             printf( "I dunno!" );
}

The code above is much simpler than it's if/else equivalent.

Code:

if( day == MONDAY || day == TUESDAY || day == WEDNESDAY
 || day == THURSDAY || day == FRIDAY )
    printf( "Working day" );
else if( day == SATURDAY || day == SUNDAY )
    printf( "No work! Cool" );
else
    printf( "I dunno" );

Concerning the limit on types, I don't see why you can't allow other types and simply have the compiler convert it to ifelse blocks during the early phases of compilation.