I need help with switches plz

I am writing a function that draw images to the screen. I already got the function to actually DRAW the images, but normally you would have to make a structure and load the images for EVERY function you make that draws pictures, I am making it to where you call this function, DrawSprite(), and it loads everything up and all that junk. One of the arguements is called sprite, which is a string. You put that arguement in, and there is a switch that will see what you put in (for example: T_grass) but for some reason the switch won't except strings, it says Case does not return an Integer. Is there any way I can make it read strings? I tried just making a bunch of if statements, but anything under a 200 MHz computer takes forever to draw the images. Now a switch would make it a LOT faster.

If a switch is not the answer for this, what else could I do?

did u put the cases in quotation marks? If that didn't work u could maybe u could try to convert the strings into character arrays and do the same thing. If not, I am not really sure how you could do it without if statements.

I am using this:

char sprite[40];

And yes, I already put the quotation marks, I used the " " ones because it has more than one character in it.

If I use if statements, as I said earlier, all the images near the bottom take a LONG time to load. I waited 12 seconds for a small picture to load!

I really dont understand the question, posting some code might help clarify things. But from what I think I understand, passing the string through a hash function might do the trick.

Code:

---

void Draw(char sprite[40])
{
    long hashval = crc32(sprite);  // or whatever funtion you want
   
    switch(hashval)
        case HASHVAL_SPRITE1: // calc the hash vals ahead of time
        .
        .
        case HASHVAL_SPRITE9:
}

---

or instead of using a string, use an enumerated type:

Code:

---

enum SPRITE {SPRITE1, SPRITE2...};
.
.
void Draw(SPRITE sprite)
{
    switch(sprite)
      case SPRITE1:
.
.
.
}

---

again, im not sure I understood your question. So if I'm is way off, just ignore me

thx, but I am very rusty on enums and hashes. The enum looks the way to go. Ok, how to I call the function? Do I call it like a normal function i.e. Draw(SPRITE1)?