Decision and Control Statements: switch

Special Math Functions

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switch statement
 The switch statement is a multiway conditional
statement generalizing the if-else statement.
• It is a far neater way of writing multiple if
statements.
 The switch statement evaluates the value of an
expression and branches to one of the case
labels.
• Duplicate labels are not allowed, so only one case
will be selected.
• The expression must evaluate an integer,
character or enumeration.

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switch statement
Switch Structure
( Multiple Selection )
T
Break

F
T
Break

T
Break

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switch statement
switch (expression)
{
case constant1: statement1;
case constant2: statement2;
...
case constantn: statementn;
default: default_statement;
}

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switch statement
 The case labels can be in any order and
must be constants.

 Notice the body of the switch statement

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The effect of a switch
1. Evaluate a switch expression.
2. Go to the case label having a constant value
that matches the value of the expression
found in step 1. If a match is not found, go to
the default label; if there is no default label,
terminate the switch.
3. Terminate the switch when a break is
encountered, or by “falling off the end”.

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default statement
 The default label can be put anywhere in the
switch.
• When C sees a switch statement, it evaluates the
expression and then looks for a matching case
label.
• If none is found, the default label is used.
• There may be at most one default label in a switch.
• Typically, it occurs last although it can occur
anywhere.

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An Example
switch (color)
{
case ‘R’: printf(“red”);
case ‘G’: printf(“green”);
case ‘B’:printf(“blue”);
default: printf(“Other Color”);
}

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break statement
 Typically, the last statement before the next
case or default label is a break statement.
 A break statement inside a switch means
that execution will continue after the switch
statement.
• If a break statement is not there, execution
“falls through” to the next statement.
 The break statement interrupts the normal
flow of control.

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break statement
switch (expression)
{
case constant1: statement1;
break;
case constant2: statement2;
break;
.......
case constant n: statementn;
break;
default: default_statement;
}

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break statement
switch (no)
{
case 1: printf(“Try a larger No”);
break;
case 2: pintf(“You are the Winner”);
break; // exit switch statement
...
case 3: printf(“Try a Smaller No”);
break;
default: printf(“Invalid No”);
}
// break jumps to here
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Converting if to switch
 Consider a series of nested if statements:
char operator;
double a, b, result;
....
if (operator == ‘+’) result = a + b;
else if (operator == ‘-’) result = a – b;
else if (operator == ‘*’) result = a * b;
else if (operator == ‘/’)
{
if (b == 0) printf(“Error: Divide by zero\n”);
else result = a / b;
}
else printf(“Unknown operator %c\n”, operator);

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Converting if to switch
char operator;
double a, b, result;

switch (operator)
{
case ‘+’: result = a + b;
break;
case ‘-’: result = a - b;
break;
case ‘*’: result = a * b;
break;
case ‘/’: if (b == 0)
printf(“Error: Divide by zero”);
else result = a / b;
break;
default : printf(“Unknown operator %c”, operator);
}
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Specialized Math Functions
 Apart from the standard functions found
in the C math library (math.h), there are
also a number of more specialized
functions.

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ceil
 The function ceil(x) returns the smallest
integer greater than or equal ot x:
x = 5.7
z = ceil(x);
would cause the variable z to be assigned
a value which is the ceiling of x,
i.e. z = 6.0

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floor
 The function floor(x) returns the largest
integer smaller than or equal to x:
x = 5.7
z = floor(x);
would cause the variable z to be
assigned a value which is the floor of x,
i.e. z = 5.0

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modf
 The function modf(x,&i) breaks x into integer
and fractional parts:
x = 5.7
z = modf(x,&i);
would cause the variable z to be assigned the
value f and indirectly the value i, so that:
x=i+f
hence, z = 5.0, and i =0.7

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Leaving the Program
 There are a number of ways to leave the
program, all found in the standard library
stdlib.h.

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abort and exit
 The function abort() causes abnormal program
termination.
abort();
 The function exit(status) causes normal
program termination.
exit(status);
If the value of status is zero, the host
environment assumes that the program executed
successfully, for all other values it assumes the
program did not execute successfully.

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The End
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