What Is Switch Statement

Switch Statement is a feature in many programming languages that allow the programmer to eliminate numerous nested if-else constructs thus improving code clarity.

Take a look on the following example:

public String toDayStringUsingIf(int dayIndex) {
        String result;

        if (dayIndex == 0) {
            result = "Sunday";
        } else if (dayIndex == 1) {
            result = "Monday";
        } else if (dayIndex == 2) {
            result = "Tuesday";
        } else if (dayIndex == 3) {
            result = "Wednesday";
        } else if (dayIndex == 4) {
            result = "Thursday";
        } else if (dayIndex == 5) {
            result = "Friday";
        } else if (dayIndex == 6) {
            result = "Saturday";
        } else {
            throw new IllegalArgumentException("Invalid day index");
        }

        return result;
    }

In the switch statement form:

public String toDayStringUsingSwitch(int dayIndex) {
        String result;

        switch (dayIndex) {
            case 1:
                result = "Sunday";
                break;
            case 2:
                result = "Monday";
                break;
            case 3:
                result = "Tuesday";
                break;
            case 4:
                result = "Wednesday";
                break;
            case 5:
                result = "Thursday";
                break;
            case 6:
                result = "Friday";
                break;
            case 7:
                result = "Saturday";
                break;
            default:
                throw new IllegalArgumentException("Invalid day index");
        }

        return result;
    }

You can see individual cases more clearly in the switch statement, it makes other developer understand the code easily. It may still looks longer than the if-else statement, but there are some improvement in the enhanced version of switch statement that makes the code more leaner.. Even that Switch statement is more clearer than the if-else statement, there are several conditions that Switch statement cannot replace the if-else statement.

To learn more about the enhanced version of switch in Java, you could check this article: Enhanced Switch Statement in Java

To understand this concept even more, it is highly suggested to surf throughout the reference list down below.

References:

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What Is Switch Statement

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