switch case statement in java with example

What is switch statement
A switch statement in java is a decision making statement in which one or more block of statements are executed according to a matching condition.
It may be considered as an alternative to if-else statement.

A switch statement is followed by one or more case statements, hence it is also called switch-case statement.
The most common application of this construct is in creating menu-driven applications where a user selects an option and program performs the action as per his choice.
switch-case syntax
The expression after the switch statement should be enclosed between parenthesis that should result in some value.
The switch statement expression should evaluate to a char, byte, short, int.
Starting java 6, it can also be an enum and from java 7, it can also be a String.
It is not permitted to use expressions which result in values of long, float and double type in switch statement.

Each case statement should be followed by a value.
case statement may also be followed by an expression but it should result in a value.
Either way, the value followed by the case statement should be a compile time constant.

Compile time constant means that it should be a constant or a final variable whose value cannot be changed.
The expression of case should be followed by a semi-colon.
Example,

int v = 5;
final int x;
switch(v) {
   case x:
      // statements for this case block
   case 3:
      // statements for this case block
}

In the above snippet, switch statement is followed by a variable with some value.
It may also be an expression such as x + y or a method call such as getCondition() provided it returns a value of permissible data type.
Each case statement is also followed by a value. Remember that this value should be a constant at compile time.
Thus, if you make the variable x as non-final, then it will be a compiler error!

Secondly, it is not possible to use relational operators such as lesser than(<) or greater than(>) in case statements.

It is not allowed to have more than 1 case statements with the same value and will be a compiler error.
This is because it will confuse the compiler as to which block to execute for a given value.

Therefore, it is illegal to have below code.

int x = 0;
switch(x) {
   case 0:
      // statements
   case 0:  // COMPILER ERROR
      // statements
   case 1:
      // statements
}

switch statement control flow
During execution, the value of expression written in switch is calculated and it is matched with the value of each case statement starting from the top.
The first case statement whose value matches with the value of switch expression is executed.
Example,

int v = 3;
final int x = 0;
switch(v) {
   case x:
      System.out.println("0");
   case 3:
      System.out.println("3");
}

This switch-case when executed will print 3 since this is the case whose value matches with the value of switch expression.
break statement in case
Each case statement may optionally end with a break statement.
As stated above, when executing a switch-case, the first case statement with its value matching with switch expression is executed.
If the matching case does not end with a break, then all subsequent case statements after the first matching case statement are executed.
Example,

int v = 3;
final int x = 0;
int y = 7;
switch(v) {
   case x:
      System.out.println("0");
   case 3:
      System.out.println("3");
   case 5:
      System.out.println("5");
   case y:
      System.out.println("7");
}

Above example will print

3
5
7

since all the case statements after the first case matching the switch expression are executed. That is obviously not always desired.
To prevent such condition, end each case with a break so that only the matching case statement is executed.
Thus, above example may be modified as

int v = 3;
final int x = 0;
int y = 7;
switch(v) {
   case x:
      System.out.println("0");
      break;
   case 3:
      System.out.println("3");
      break;
   case 5:
      System.out.println("5");
      break;
   case y:
      System.out.println("7");
      break;
}

This example will only print 3 because the switch-case will terminate after the first case execution.
Also note that the break in last case may be omitted since there is no case block to execute after the last one.
default statement in switch
It might happen that there is no case statement whose value matches with the switch expression value and you might want to take some fixed action in such scenarios such as printing an error message.
switch statement provides a default case which is executed when the value of any case statement does not match with the switch expression.

Suppose a program which displays some menu and asks user to input a choice but the user inputs some invalid value which does not match with any case statement value.
In such scenario, default case becomes very handy.

The default case consists of a default keyword in place of case and is not followed by any value. Example,

int v = 10;
final int x = 0;
int y = 7;
switch(v) {
   case x:
      System.out.println("0");
      break;
   case 3:
      System.out.println("3");
      break;
   case 5:
      System.out.println("5");
      break;
   case y:
      System.out.println("7");
      break;
   default:
      System.out.println("No matching case");
}

In the above example, the default statement will be executed since no case statements has a matching value with switch expression.
Remember that the default case should always be the last statement in a switch-case construct.
There will be no compiler error if you place it in the middle but then, it will be always executed and all the case statements after it will also be executed if it does not end with break.
Since it should be the last statement, it is not required to end it with break.

A default case is similar to the else block in if-else statement which is executed when no if condition is satisfied.

Multiple case blocks with same statements
A switch statement may have more than 1 case with different values but same set of statements.
It is like having a logical OR condition where for more than 1 values, same set of statements need to be executed. Example,

String day = "";
switch(day) {
   case "Saturday":
   case "Sunday":
      System.out.println("Holiday");
   default:
      System.out.println("Working day");       
}

Note that above example uses a String data type in switch expression and case statements.
This is possible only if you are using java 7 and above.

Nested switch statement
A switch statement used inside another switch statement is called nested switch.
A nested switch will be placed inside a case statement and is required when two or more conditions need to be matched.
As stated earlier, case statements should be compile time constants. As such, they are not allowed to contain relational and logical operators such as &&.
The only way to achieve more than one conditions(or logical AND) is using a nested switch. Example,

System.out.println("1. Burger, 2. Pizza, 3. Sandwich");
int input = 0;
// read user input
switch (input) {
   case 1:
	System.out.println("Burger is ready");
	break;
   case 2:
	System.out.println("Enter the type of topping");
	System.out.println("1. Extra cheese, 2. Extra chicken, 3. Extra veggies");
	// read user input again
	switch (input) {
           case 1:
		System.out.println("Extra cheese pizza!!");
                break;
	   case 2:
		System.out.println("Extra chicken!!");
                break;
	   case 3:
		System.out.println("Extra veggies!!");
                break;
	}
   case 3:
      System.out.println("Sandwich");
      break;
   default:
      System.out.println("Invalid food option!!");
}

Above switch-case example shows a menu driven program where the user is presented with 3 food options.
If he chooses the 2nd option, then add-on options for that item are displayed.
Summing up
Following are the important bullet points that conclude this article.

A switch statement should be followed by an expression which must return a value.
Value types supported are byte, short, int, char, enum(from java 6) and String(from java 7).
Value in case statement should be a compile time constant.
Data types of values of case statements should match with that of the switch expression.
case block may consist of more than statements.
Statements of the case block may or may not be enclosed between curly braces.
More than one case statements can not have same values.
Variables defined in a case block are not visible outside of that block.
Relational and logical operators are not allowed in case statements.
case statements are executed from top to bottom and the first case statement whose value matches with that of switch expression is executed.
case statements may end with an optional break statement.
If there is no break statement, then all case statements after the first matching case are also executed.
A default case is written using default keyword. It is executed when there is no matching case.
default case is optional and should be placed at the end of switch though it is not mandatory to do so.
To achieve a logical OR condition, more than 1 case statements with different values may be written where only one case statement(last one out of those to be matched) shall have statements to execute.
A switch statement inside another switch statement is called nested switch.
They are primarily used to achieve a logical AND condition in a case statement.

Hope this article clarified the concept of switch-case statement in java along with its different rules and examples. Hit the clap below to like it.