Switch Case in C# - Understanding it with Examples

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C# is a modern, general purpose , object oriented programming language developed by Microsoft. C# is also part of the .NET Framework and used mostly for web development and networking related functionality. Being based on C and C++, it is highly structured and fully object oriented. You can learn more about how C# works with the .NET framework in this course.

The switch case programming construct is an important feature of many programming languages including C#. It is used for decision making in several programs – specifically to choose between multiple use cases or options. We walk you through this intermediate tutorial on the switch case construct in C#. This requires some prior understanding of C#. If you’re new to it, you may want to first take this beginners course on C#.

The Switch Case

In a switch statement a variable is compared against a list of values. Each value is termed a case and the variable is checked against each switch case.

The syntax for a switch case statement in C# is as follows:

switch(expression){

case constant-expression1 :

statement(s);

break;

case constant-expression2 :

statement(s);

break;

default :

statement(s);

A switch statement has the following rules

The expression used in a switch statement should be of integral or enumerated type. It can also be of a class type where the class has a single conversion function to an integral or enumerated type.
There can be any number of case statements within a switch. Note that each case is followed by the value to be compared to and a colon.
For your information the constant-expression should be of the same data type as the variable in the switch, and it must be a constant or a literal.
When the variable being switched is found equal to a particular case, the statements following that case will execute until a break statement is encountered
When a break statement is encountered, the switch case terminates and the flow of control jumps to the next line following the switch statement
Note that not every case has to have a break statement. In case of no break, the flow control will go to subsequent cases until a break statement is reached.
It is convenient for a switch statement to have an optional default case. The latter must appear at the end of the switch. The default case may be used to perform a task when none of the existing cases are true. Remember that no break statement is required in the default case.

To explore more about the Switch Case in C#, you can look up this C# course.

Example 1: Simple Program that uses switch case

Let’s take a simple program to begin with. This program tests the “newvalue” variable against two integer constants: 1 and 6. As it equals 6, we execute the second case. Finally 6 is printed to the console. You could also do this with an if construct, but in situations where there are many such cases to be checked against, switch case is better.

using System;

class NewProgram

static void Main()

int newvalue = 6;

switch (newvalue)

case 1:

Console.WriteLine(1);

break;

case 6:

Console.WriteLine(6);

break;

Output

Example 2: Program that uses int switch

In this program, we’ll take it a step further. We take an input from the user, compare it against our switch cases, and tell the user whether they’ve entered a medium or a low valued integer. We also include a default statement, to catch situations where the integer does not fall into the predefined cases.

class NewProgram

static void Main()

while (true)

System.Console.WriteLine("Type number and press the Enter Key");

try

int a = int.Parse(System.Console.ReadLine());

switch (a)

case 0:

case 1:

case 2:

System.Console.WriteLine("Low Integer");

break;

case 3:

case 4:

case 5:

System.Console.WriteLine("Medium Integer");

break;

default:

System.Console.WriteLine("Other Integer");

break;

catch

Example 3: Program that uses char switch

In this example, we show you how to use a character value in a switch case. It’s quite similar to the previous example, except for the subtle differences in dealing with strings and characters instead of integers.

using System;

namespace DecisionMaking

class SwitchProgram

static void Main(string[] args)

char new_grade = 'B';

switch (new_grade)

case 'A':

Console.WriteLine("Distinction");

break;

case 'B':

case 'C':

Console.WriteLine("Above Average");

break;

case 'D':

Console.WriteLine("You have passed");

break;

case 'F':

Console.WriteLine("You need to try again");

break;

default:

Console.WriteLine("This is an Invalid grade");

break;

Console.WriteLine("Your grade is {0}", new_grade);

Console.ReadLine();

This program code produces the following result:

Above Average

Your grade is B

If you’d like to learn more about string and character manipulation in C#, check out this C# course.

Example 4: Program that benchmarks ‘switch’

A switch statement is used to optimize certain programs. We mentioned earlier that you could also achieve the same functionality with an if statement. However, if you need to check against a large range of values, a switch case will be much faster. Let’s write a basic benchmark to actually time both methods and see the difference. Switch statement is used in Method1. However Method2 has a series of if statements in place of the switch case programming construct.

 using System;

using System.Diagnostics;

class NewProgram

static int Method1(int x)

switch (x)

case 0:

return 20;

case 1:

return -2;

case 2:

return 40;

default:

return 0;

static int Method2(int x)

if (x == 0) return 20;

if (x == 1) return -2;

if (x == 2) return 40;

return 0;

static void Main()

Method1(0); Method2(0);

const int max = 100000000;

var s1 = Stopwatch.StartNew();

for (int i = 0; i < max; i++)

Method1(0);

Method1(1);

Method1(2);

Method1(3);

s1.Stop();

var s2 = Stopwatch.StartNew();

for (int i = 0; i < max; i++)

Method2(0);

Method2(1);

Method2(2);

Method2(3);

s2.Stop();

Console.WriteLine(((double)(s1.Elapsed.TotalMilliseconds * 1000000) /

max).ToString("0.00 ns"));

Console.WriteLine(((double)(s2.Elapsed.TotalMilliseconds * 1000000) /

max).ToString("0.00 ns"));

Console.Read();

Results

9.25 ns   [switch]

9.85 ns   [if]

Note that according to the benchmark, the switch statement version is relatively faster. The time saved could be critical in some applications.

Example 4:Program which uses goto statement in switch

Sometimes you may want to switch to a different location in your code. You can use the goto statement with your switch case. This is used to improve performance and minimize code size in certain situations. This requires a special goto case or goto default.

 using System;

class NewProgram

static void Main()

Console.WriteLine(GetPrice(1000));

Console.WriteLine(GetPrice(-1));

Console.WriteLine(GetPrice(int.Parse("100")));

static int GetPrice(int value)

int price = 5;

switch (value)

case 1000:

price += 10;

goto case 100;

case 100:

return price * 10;

default:

return price;

Output for this program is as follows.

Example 6: Program that uses loop and switch with break

This program has a for loop containing the switch statement.

using System;

class NewProgram

static void Main()

for (int x = 0; x < 5; x++)

switch (x)

case 0:

case 1:

case 2:

Console.WriteLine("First three");

break;

case 3:

case 4:

Console.WriteLine("Last two");

break;

Here is the output for the above program

First three

First three

First three

Last two

Last two

You can learn more about constructs like the goto statement, loops and breaks in this intermediate C# course.

Hope this tutorial was fun and useful. Do try out these examples for yourself. Experiment with the code and create your own programs. That’ll help you get more comfortable with programming in C#.