Lesson:
Switch Case
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Topics Covered
Introduction to switch case
Switch Syntax
Switch with return statemen
What happens when we skip the break keyword
Handling multiple cases having same logic
When to use switch statements or if/else statements
Example: Weekda
When to use switch statements or if/else statements.
Introduction to switch case.
Since we have been talking about conditionals from past lectures. Let’s look at a real-life scenario, assume it's
lunchtime and you walk to your favorite restaurant. The attendant offers you the menu. On the menu are
different delicious items made for special people like you. You go through the menu and choose one or more
meals from the menu and have yourself a good lunch. That is what switch statements help us do in
JavaScript
Switch Syntax
Let’s look at the syntax of the switch statement
switch keyword defines a switch block
case keyword defines different case blocks, which will be executed only when case value matches with
expression value. Case values can be a number, string or boolean etc
break keyword is used at the end of every case block to terminate switch case evaluation further
default keyword defines a default case block. When no case value is matched then the default block will
be executed. It is not mandatory to include it.
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Let’s compare the switch syntax with the if statement
Example: Weekday
Let’s now implement a switch statement considering an example.
We represent our weekdays in both number notation and text notation like 1 for Sunday, 2 for Monday, and so
on.
Let’s take the number notation as input and provide text notation as output using the switch statement
In this case, the only condition is that the number notation of the day must be between 1 to 7. If any other
input is given then it will be considered invalid input.
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Let’s now implement a switch statement considering an example.
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This code will output Thursday to the console because the value of the variable day is 5.
As we have passed the day to the switch statement, the day matches case 5 in the switch statement. When
this case is executed, it will run the code block associated with it, which is [Link](Thursday).
The break statement at the end of the case ensures that the code execution exits the switch statement after
the matching case has been executed, so the code in the other cases and the default block will not be
executed.
In the above example, we have used numbers as case values, 1,2,3,4, but be careful if you use “1” as your case
value it will be treated as a different case because “1” is a string and 1 is a number datatype and switch cases
use strict comparison (===). The values must be of the same type to match. A strict comparison can only be
true if the operands are of the same type.
Switch with return statement
We can use the return keyword instead of break for every case. It will be helpful, if we are using switch
statements inside
the function, because it will serve two purposes, one to come out of the switch block (like a break) and at the
same time it returns the result from the function.
Lets see one example using return statement,
In the above example, the getValue function returns keywords “Excellent”, “Average”, “Below Average” based
on grades A, B, C respectively. It uses switch statements and instead of the break keyword in every case we
are returning value using the return keyword.
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What happens when we skip the break keyword?
In JavaScript, when you skip the break keyword in a switch statement, the program will continue executing
the statements in the following case(s) without any further
evaluation of the case conditions. This behavior is known as "fall-through."
Example
Since the break keyword is not used after the first case, the program will continue executing the statements in
the subsequent cases. This is because JavaScript does not
automatically exit the switch statement after a matching case unless a break statement is encountered.
Handling multiple cases having same logic̣
Sometimes we have situations where, we have same logic for different cases, here is an example,
Suppose in an organization, salary is incremented annually based on their role
If the role is an employee, manager or HR increment will be 5%
If the role is CEO, CIO, CTO increment will be 10%.
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Lets see how we can implement this using switch,
When to use switch statements or if/else statements?
if/else conditional branches are great for variable conditions that result in a Boolean, whereas switch
statements are great for fixed data values
In a situation where more than one choice is preferred, the switch is a better choice than an if/else
statement
Considering the speed of execution it is advised if the number of cases is more than 5 use a switch,
otherwise, you may use if-else statements
Switch is more readable and looks much cleaner when you have to combine cases.
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