Java – Using switch statement with a range of value in each case

if statementjavaswitch statement

In Java, is it possible to write a switch statement where each case contains more than one value? For example (though clearly the following code won't work):

switch (num) {
    case 1 .. 5:
        System.out.println("testing case 1 to 5");
        break;
    case 6 .. 10:
        System.out.println("testing case 6 to 10");
        break;
}

I think this can be done in Objective C, are there a similar thing in Java? Or should I just use if, else if statements instead?

Best Answer

Java has nothing of that sort. Why not just do the following?

public static boolean isBetween(int x, int lower, int upper) {
  return lower <= x && x <= upper;
}

if (isBetween(num, 1, 5)) {
  System.out.println("testing case 1 to 5");
} else if (isBetween(num, 6, 10)) {
  System.out.println("testing case 6 to 10");
}

Related Solutions

Python – Replacements for switch statement in Python

The original answer below was written in 2008. Since then, Python 3.10 (2021) introduced the match-case statement which provides a first-class implementation of a "switch" for Python. For example:

def f(x):
    match x:
        case 'a':
            return 1
        case 'b':
            return 2
        case _:        
            return 0   # 0 is the default case if x is not found

The match-case statement is considerably more powerful than this simple example.

You could use a dictionary:

def f(x):
    return {
        'a': 1,
        'b': 2,
    }[x]

C# – Multiple cases in switch statement

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;
}

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Python – Replacements for switch statement in Python

C# – Multiple cases in switch statement

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