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3.4.3 The Switch Statement
The switch statement is used to execute a block of code matching one value out of many possible values. The syntax
of the Java switch statement is as follows:
switch (expression)
{ case constant_1 : statements;
break;
case constant_2 : statements;
break;
default : statements;
break;
}
Within the switch statement, as you can see, there can be many case statements. The expression is compared with
the constants in each case group and the matching case group is executed. If the expression evaluates to some
constant=constant_1, the statements in the case group constant_1 are executed. Similarly, if the expression evaluates
to constant_2, the statements in the case group constant_2 are executed. The break statement after each case group
terminates the switch and causes execution to continue to the statements after the switch. If there is no match for the
expression with any case group, the statements in the default part are executed. The expression in the switch statement
must evaluate to byte, short, int, or char. The program code below demonstrates usage of the switch statement.
public class SwitchDemo
{
public static void main (String[ ] args)
{
int today = 5; String day = “”;
switch (today)
{
case 1: day = “monday”;
break;
case 2: day = “Tuesday”;
break;
case 3: day = “Wednesday”;
break;
236 Touchpad Information Technology-XII

