Switch statement fallthrough is one of my personal major reasons for loving switch
vs. if/else if
constructs. An example is in order here:
static string NumberToWords(int number)
{
string[] numbers = new string[]
{ "", "one", "two", "three", "four", "five",
"six", "seven", "eight", "nine" };
string[] tens = new string[]
{ "", "", "twenty", "thirty", "forty", "fifty",
"sixty", "seventy", "eighty", "ninety" };
string[] teens = new string[]
{ "ten", "eleven", "twelve", "thirteen", "fourteen", "fifteen",
"sixteen", "seventeen", "eighteen", "nineteen" };
string ans = "";
switch (number.ToString().Length)
{
case 3:
ans += string.Format("{0} hundred and ", numbers[number / 100]);
case 2:
int t = (number / 10) % 10;
if (t == 1)
{
ans += teens[number % 10];
break;
}
else if (t > 1)
ans += string.Format("{0}-", tens[t]);
case 1:
int o = number % 10;
ans += numbers[o];
break;
default:
throw new ArgumentException("number");
}
return ans;
}
The smart people are cringing because the string[]
s should be declared outside the function: well, they are, this is just an example.
The compiler fails with the following error:
Control cannot fall through from one case label ('case 3:') to another Control cannot fall through from one case label ('case 2:') to another
Why? And is there any way to get this sort of behaviour without having three if
s?
(Copy/paste of an answer I provided elsewhere)
Falling through switch
-case
s can be achieved by having no code in a case
(see case 0
), or using the special goto case
(see case 1
) or goto default
(see case 2
) forms:
switch (/*...*/) {
case 0: // shares the exact same code as case 1
case 1:
// do something
goto case 2;
case 2:
// do something else
goto default;
default:
// do something entirely different
break;
}