Syntax
v-------------------------------------------' >>-switch-(-Expression-)-{-+-case-ConstantExpression-:-BlockStatements-+-> >-+---------------------------+-}->< '-default-:-BlockStatements-'
Description
The switch statement enables you to compare a variable against different test
values. It transfers control to one of several statements in a loop depending on the value
of an expression. If the test value equals any of the case values, then the corresponding
result occurs and the break statement causes execution of the switch
statement to end. The type of the Expression must be byte,
short , int, or long, or a compilation error
occurs.
The body of a switch statement must be a block. Any statement immediately
contained by the block may be labeled with one or more case or default
labels.
When the switch statement is executed, first the Expression is
evaluated. If evaluation of the Expression completes abruptly for some reason,
the switch statement completes abruptly for the same reason. Otherwise,
execution continues by comparing the value of the Expression with each case
constant. After that, a decision is made, based on the following rules:
Example
In the following example, we use a for loop to iterate over our switch
statement four times, testing it with values zero to three.
for (int test = 0; test <= 3; test++) { switch (test){ case 1: System.out.println( "Good" ); break; case 2: System.out.println( "Very Good" ); break; default: System.out.println( "Boring" ); break; } }
The above code produces the following output:
Boring Good Very Good Boring
Syntax diagrams
Java types
break keyword
byte keyword
case keyword
default keyword
int keyword
long keyword
short keyword
Source: The Java Language Specification. Copyright (C) 1996 Sun Microsystems, Inc.