programming-for-dummies

192
Making Multiple Choices with the SELECT CASE Statement
switch (Variable)
{
case X: Command #1;
break;
case Y: Command #2;
}
A SELECT CASE statement in BASIC might look like this:
SELECT CASE Age
CASE 65
Status = Retired
CASE 21
Status – Working
CASE 15
Status = Student
END SELECT
The equivalent switch statement in C might look like this:
switch (age)
{
case 65: status = retired;
break;
case 21: status = working;
break;
case 15: status – student;
}
The most crucial difference between the SELECT CASE statement in other
languages and the switch statement in the curly bracket languages is the
use of the break command. If you omit the break command, the switch
statement doesn’t know when to stop running commands.
In the preceding example, the break command stops the computer from
running the other commands stored in the rest of the switch statement. So
if the value of the age variable is 65, the preceding C program does the
following:
1. Set the status variable to retired.
2. Stop running the switch statement.
Suppose you didn’t include the break command, as follows:
switch (age)
{
case 65: status = retired;
case 21: status = working;
case 15: status – student;
}