Sams Teach Yourself C++ in 24 Hours, Third Edition

switch Statements

if and else...if combinations can become quite confusing when nested too deeply, and C++ offers an alternative. Unlike if, which evaluates one value, switch statements enable you to branch on any of a number of different values. The general form of the switch statement is

switch (expression)
{
case valueOne: statement;
                   break;
case valueTwo: statement;
                   break;
....
case valueN:   statement;
                   break;
default:       statement;
}
					

expression is any legal C++ expression, and the statements are any legal C++ statements or block of statements. switch evaluates expression and compares the result to each of the case values. Note, however, that the evaluation is only for equality; relational operators cannot be used here, nor can Boolean operations. ...