case statement

switch statement
case statement
multi-way branch

   <programming> (Or case statement, multi-way branch) A
   construct found in most {high-level languages} for selecting
   one of several possible blocks of code or branch destinations
   depending on the value of an expression.  An example in {C} is

   	switch (foo(x, y))
   	{
   	case 1:  printf("Hello\n");	/* fall through */
   	case 2:  printf("Goodbye\n"); break;
   	case 3:  printf("Fish\n"); break;
   	default: fprintf(stderr, "Odd foo value\n"); exit(1);
   	}

   The break statements cause execution to continue after the
   whole switch statemetnt.  The lack of a break statement after
   the first case means that execution will {fall through} into
   the second case.  Since this is a common programming error you
   should add a comment if it is intentional.

   If none of the explicit cases matches the expression value
   then the (optional) default case is taken.

   A similar construct in some {functional languages} returns the
   value of one of several expressions selected according to the
   value of the first expression.  A distant relation to the
   modern switch statement is {Fortran}'s {computed goto}.

   (1997-01-30)