The following switch statement contains several case clauses and one default clause. Each clause contains a function call and a break statement. The break statements prevent control from passing down through each statement in the switch body.
If the switch expression evaluated to '/', the switch statement would call the function divide. Control would then pass to the statement following the switch body.
char key;
printf("Enter an arithmetic operator\n");
scanf("%c",&key);
switch (key)
{
case '+':
add();
break;
case '-':
subtract();
break;
case '*':
multiply();
break;
case '/':
divide();
break;
default:
printf("invalid key\n");
break;
}If the switch expression matches a case expression, the statements following the case expression are processed until a break statement is encountered or the end of the switch body is reached. In the following example, break statements are not present. If the value of text[i] is equal to 'A', all three counters are incremented. If the value of text[i] is equal to 'a', lettera and total are increased. Only total is increased if text[i] is not equal to 'A' or 'a'.
char text[100];
int capa, lettera, total;
// ...
for (i=0; i<sizeof(text); i++) {
switch (text[i])
{
case 'A':
capa++;
case 'a':
lettera++;
default:
total++;
}
}The following switch statement performs the same statements for more than one case label:
/**
** This example contains a switch statement that performs
** the same statement for more than one case label.
**/
#include <stdio.h>
int main(void)
{
int month;
/* Read in a month value */
printf("Enter month: ");
scanf("%d", &month);
/* Tell what season it falls into */
switch (month)
{
case 12:
case 1:
case 2:
printf("month %d is a winter month\n", month);
break;
case 3:
case 4:
case 5:
printf("month %d is a spring month\n", month);
break;
case 6:
case 7:
case 8:
printf("month %d is a summer month\n", month);
break;
case 9:
case 10:
case 11:
printf("month %d is a fall month\n", month);
break;
case 66:
case 99:
default:
printf("month %d is not a valid month\n", month);
}
return(0);
}If the expression month has the value 3, control passes to the statement:
printf("month %d is a spring month\n",
month);The break statement passes control to the statement following the switch body.
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