Before I did my research on this post, I use if-else with reckless abandon 😂, however, what matters as one progresses in software engineering is not just writing code that works but writing code that is efficient.

A times comes in one's career, where you move from the know-how to the know-why.

Enough of my ted talk, let's dive into the topic of discussion.

"if-else" and "switch-case" are both conditional statements in programming that allows for the execution of different code blocks based on different conditions.

"if-else" statements can be used to evaluate Boolean expressions or comparison operators, hence, they're suitable for complex conditions and also for cases where the number of conditions is not known in advance.

"switch-case" statements are typically used with discrete values, such as enums or integer values, and allow for cleaner and more concise code. However, switch-case statements are less flexible and cannot handle complex conditions.

Here's the question, How do you when to use "if-else" or "switch-case" statements?

Use if-else when:
» The condition to be evaluated is complex or involves multiple comparison operators
» The number of conditions to evaluate are small
» The conditions are not based on discrete values

Use switch-case when:
» The condition to be evaluated is based on a discrete value, such as an enum or integer value
» The number of conditions to evaluate are large
» The conditions are simple and can be expressed as equality tests

Knowing what conditional statement to use will help you move from writing code that works to writing efficient code.

Which of these conditional statements do you use? 🤔

kyrios Iesous