Chapter 1: Overview

switch

The switch statement performs the same kind of comparison as the third format of the if/else statement; it executes a specific statement or set of statements based upon the comparison of different simple type constants to a simple type variable.

**Table 1-9: Switch statement**
Format	Meaning
`switch (fixed-length type variable) {` `case constant1: statement1; statement2; break; case constant2: statement3; break; default: statement4; statement5; }`	If the variable equals `constant1`, then all statements from here... to this break are executed. If the value of the variable equals `constant2`, then all statements from here... to this break are executed. If the value of the variable does not equal any of the constants, then all statements from here... to the end of the switch statement are executed.

A fixed-length variable is one of the following types: int, short, long, char, and the unsigned variants of those, namely, unsigned int, unsigned short, unsigned long, and unsigned char. All other types, including string and float, are considered complex datatypes in ODL, and do not work correctly as variables in the switch statement.

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