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The switch statement

The switch construction is another way of making decisions in C code. It is very flexible, but only tests for integer and character values. It has the following general form:

switch (integer or character expression)
{
  case constant1 : statement1;
  break;          /* optional */

  case constant2 : statement2;
  break;          /* optional */

  case constant3 : statement3;
  break;          /* optional */
  ...
}

The integer or character expression in the parentheses is evaluated, and the program checks whether it matches one of the constants in the various cases listed. If there is a match, the statement following that case will be executed, and execution will continue until either a break statement or the closing curly bracket of the entire switch statement is encountered.

One of the cases is called default. Statements after the default case are executed when none of the other cases are satisfied. You only need a default case if you are not sure you are covering every case with the ones you list.

Here is an example program that uses the switch statement to translate decimal digits into Morse code: