Table of Contents

switch

description

The switch statement is a multi-select control structure. An expression is evaluated once and compared to 'constants'. In case of equality, the 'statements' that come after the 'constant' are processed. In switch 'statements' can only ordinary data types (ie, 'int', 'long', char, short, etc.) can be used.

switch(expression)
{
   case constant1:
       statements
   break;
 
   case constant2:
       statements
   break;
 
   case constantn:
       statements
   break;
 
   default:
       statements
} 

switch example in c

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
 
int main()
{
 int input;
 
    do
    {
        printf( "press 1 or 2 \n" );
        scanf( "%d", &input );
        switch ( input ) 
        {
            case 1:
                printf("case 1 selected\n");
                break;
            case 2:          
                printf("case 2 selected\n");
                break;
            default:            
                printf( "default case!\n" );
                break;
        }
    }
    while(input != 2);
 
return 0;
}

output of this switch example

  press 1 or 2 
  1
  case 1 selected
  press 1 or 2 
  2
  case 2 selected