Multiple cases in switch statement

Question

Is there a way to fall through multiple case statements without stating case value: repeatedly?

I know this works:

switch (value)
{
   case 1:
   case 2:
   case 3:
      //do some stuff
      break;
   case 4:
   case 5:
   case 6:
      //do some different stuff
      break;
   default:
       //default stuff
      break;
}

but I'd like to do something like this:

switch (value)
{
   case 1,2,3:
      //Do Something
      break;
   case 4,5,6:
      //Do Something
      break;
   default:
      //Do the Default
      break;
}

Is this syntax I'm thinking of from a different language, or am I missing something?

Answer 1

There is no syntax in C++ nor C# for the second method you mentioned.

There's nothing wrong with your first method. If however you have very big ranges, just use a series of if statements.

Answer 2

I guess this has been already answered. However, I think that you can still mix both options in a syntactically better way by doing:

switch (value)
{
case 1: case 2: case 3:          
    // Do Something
    break;
case 4: case 5: case 6: 
    // Do Something
    break;
default:
    // Do Something
    break;
}

Answer 3

This syntax is from the Visual Basic Select...Case Statement:

Dim number As Integer = 8
Select Case number
    Case 1 To 5
        Debug.WriteLine("Between 1 and 5, inclusive")
        ' The following is the only Case clause that evaluates to True.
    Case 6, 7, 8
        Debug.WriteLine("Between 6 and 8, inclusive")
    Case Is < 1
        Debug.WriteLine("Equal to 9 or 10")
    Case Else
        Debug.WriteLine("Not between 1 and 10, inclusive")
End Select

You cannot use this syntax in C#. Instead, you must use the syntax from your first example.

Answer 4

A bit late for the original question, but I'm posting this answer in the hope that someone using a newer version (C# 7 -- available by default in Visual Studio 2017/.NET Framework 4.6.2), will find it helpful.

In C# 7, range-based switching is now possible with the switch statement and would help with the OP's problem.

Example:

int i = 5;

switch (i)
{
    case int n when (n >= 7):
        Console.WriteLine($"I am 7 or above: {n}");
        break;

    case int n when (n >= 4 && n <= 6 ):
        Console.WriteLine($"I am between 4 and 6: {n}");
        break;

    case int n when (n <= 3):
        Console.WriteLine($"I am 3 or less: {n}");
        break;
}

// Output: I am between 4 and 6: 5

Notes:

• The parentheses ( and ) are not required in the when condition, but are used in this example to highlight the comparison(s).
• var may also be used in lieu of int. For example: case var n when n >= 7:.

Answer 5

You can leave out the newline which gives you:

case 1: case 2: case 3:
   break;

but I consider that bad style.

Answer 6

.NET Framework 3.5 has got ranges:

Enumerable.Range from MSDN

you can use it with "contains" and the IF statement, since like someone said the SWITCH statement uses the "==" operator.

Here an example:

int c = 2;
if(Enumerable.Range(0,10).Contains(c))
    DoThing();
else if(Enumerable.Range(11,20).Contains(c))
    DoAnotherThing();

But I think we can have more fun: since you won't need the return values and this action doesn't take parameters, you can easily use actions!

public static void MySwitchWithEnumerable(int switchcase, int startNumber, int endNumber, Action action)
{
    if(Enumerable.Range(startNumber, endNumber).Contains(switchcase))
        action();
}

The old example with this new method:

MySwitchWithEnumerable(c, 0, 10, DoThing);
MySwitchWithEnumerable(c, 10, 20, DoAnotherThing);

Since you are passing actions, not values, you should omit the parenthesis, it's very important. If you need function with arguments, just change the type of Action to Action<ParameterType>. If you need return values, use Func<ParameterType, ReturnType>.

In C# 3.0 there is no easy Partial Application to encapsulate the fact the the case parameter is the same, but you create a little helper method (a bit verbose, tho).

public static void MySwitchWithEnumerable(int startNumber, int endNumber, Action action){ 
    MySwitchWithEnumerable(3, startNumber, endNumber, action); 
}

Here an example of how new functional imported statement are IMHO more powerful and elegant than the old imperative one.

Answer 7

@ Jennifer Owens: you are absolutely right the code below won't work:

case 1 | 3 | 5:
//not working do something

The only way to do this is:

case 1: case 2: case 3:
// do something
break;

The code you are looking for works on visual basic where you easily can put ranges... in none option of switch or if else blocks convenient, I'd suggest to, at very extreme point, make .dll with visual basic and import back to your c# project.

Note: switch equivalent in visual basic is select case.

Answer 8

Another option would be to use a routine. If cases 1-3 all execute the same logic then wrap that logic in a routine and call it for each case. I know this doesn't actually get rid of the case statements, but it does implement good style and keep maintenance to a minimum.....

[Edit] Added alternate implementation to match original question...[/Edit]

switch (x)
{
   case 1:
      DoSomething();
      break;
   case 2:
      DoSomething();
      break;
   case 3:
      DoSomething();
      break;
   ...
}

private void DoSomething()
{
   ...
}

Alt

switch (x)
{
   case 1:
   case 2:
   case 3:
      DoSomething();
      break;
   ...
}

private void DoSomething()
{
   ...
}

Answer 9

Here is the complete C#7 solution...

switch (value)
{
   case var s when new[] { 1,2,3 }.Contains(s):
      //Do Something
      break;
   case var s when new[] { 4,5,6 }.Contains(s):
      //Do Something
      break;
   default:
      //Do the Default
      break;
}

Works with strings too...

switch (mystring)
{
   case var s when new[] { "Alpha","Beta","Gamma" }.Contains(s):
      //Do Something
      break;
...
}

Answer 10

One lesser known facet of switch in C# is that it relies on the operator= and since it can be overriden you could have something like this:

string s = foo();

switch (s) {
  case "abc": /*...*/ break;
  case "def": /*...*/ break;
}

Answer 11

gcc implements an extension to the C language to support sequential ranges:

switch (value)
{
   case 1...3:
      //Do Something
      break;
   case 4...6:
      //Do Something
      break;
   default:
      //Do the Default
      break;
}

Edit: Just noticed the C# tag on the question, so presumably a gcc answer doesn't help.

Answer 12

Actually I don't like the GOTO command too, but it's in official MS materials, here are all allowed syntaxes.

If the end point of the statement list of a switch section is reachable, a compile-time error occurs. This is known as the "no fall through" rule. The example

switch (i) {
case 0:
   CaseZero();
   break;
case 1:
   CaseOne();
   break;
default:
   CaseOthers();
   break;
}

is valid because no switch section has a reachable end point. Unlike C and C++, execution of a switch section is not permitted to "fall through" to the next switch section, and the example

switch (i) {
case 0:
   CaseZero();
case 1:
   CaseZeroOrOne();
default:
   CaseAny();
}

results in a compile-time error. When execution of a switch section is to be followed by execution of another switch section, an explicit goto case or goto default statement must be used:

switch (i) {
case 0:
   CaseZero();
   goto case 1;
case 1:
   CaseZeroOrOne();
   goto default;
default:
   CaseAny();
   break;
}

Multiple labels are permitted in a switch-section. The example

switch (i) {
case 0:
   CaseZero();
   break;
case 1:
   CaseOne();
   break;
case 2:
default:
   CaseTwo();
   break;
}

I believe in this particular case, the GOTO can be used, it's actually the only way to fallthrough.

source: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa664749%28v=vs.71%29.aspx

Answer 13

An awful lot of work seems to have been put into finding ways to get one of C# least used syntaxes to somehow look better or work better. Personally I find the switch statement is seldom worth using. I would strongly suggest analyzing what data you are testing and the end results you are wanting.

Let us say for example you want to quickly test values in a known range to see if they are prime numbers. You want to avoid having your code do the wasteful calculations and you can find a list of primes in the range you want online. You could use a massive switch statement to compare each value to known prime numbers.

Or you could just create an array map of primes and get immediate results:

    bool[] Primes = new bool[] {
        false, false, true, true, false, true, false,    
        true, false, false, false, true, false, true,
        false,false,false,true,false,true,false};
    private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) {
        int Value = Convert.ToInt32(textBox1.Text);
        if ((Value >= 0) && (Value < Primes.Length)) {
            bool IsPrime = Primes[Value];
            textBox2.Text = IsPrime.ToString();
        }
    }

Maybe you want to see if a character in a string is hexadecimal. You could use an ungly and somewhat large switch statement.

Or you could use either regular expressions to test the char or use the IndexOf function to search for the char in a string of known hexadecimal letters:

        private void textBox2_TextChanged(object sender, EventArgs e) {
        try {
            textBox1.Text = ("0123456789ABCDEFGabcdefg".IndexOf(textBox2.Text[0]) >= 0).ToString();
        } catch {
        }
    }

Let us say you want to do one of 3 different actions depending on a value that will be the range of 1 to 24. I would suggest using a set of IF statements. And if that became too complex (Or the numbers were larger such as 5 different actions depending on a value in the range of 1 to 90) then use an enum to define the actions and create an array map of the enums. The value would then be used to index into the array map and get the enum of the action you want. Then use either a small set of IF statements or a very simple switch statement to process the resulting enum value.

Also, the nice thing about an array map that converts a range of values into actions is that it can be easily changed by code. With hard wired code you can't easily change behaviour at runtime but with an array map it is easy.

Answer 14

If you have a very big amount of string (or any other type) Case all doing the same thing, I recommand the use of a string List combined with the string.Contains property.

So if you have a big switch statement like so:

switch (stringValue)
{
    case "cat":
    case "dog":
    case "string3":
    ...
    case "+1000 more string": //Too many string to write a case for all!
        //Do something;
    case "a lonely case"
        //Do something else;
    .
    .
    .
}

You might want to replace it with an if statement like this:

//Define all the similar "case" string in a List
List<string> listString = new List<string>(){ "cat", "dog", "string3", "+1000 more string"};
//Use string.Contains to find what you are looking for
if (listString.Contains(stringValue))
{
    //Do something;
}
else
{
    //Then go back to a switch statement inside the else for the remaining cases if you really need to
}

This scale well for any number of string case.

Answer 15

For this, you would use a goto statement. Such as:

    switch(value){
    case 1:
        goto case 3;
    case 2:
        goto case 3;
    case 3:
        DoCase123();
    //This would work too, but I'm not sure if it's slower
    case 4:
        goto case 5;
    case 5:
        goto case 6;
    case 6:
        goto case 7;
    case 7:
        DoCase4567();
    }