is it considered bad practice to write a switch case statement with a comma such as this:
switch(name)
{
case 'a', 'A' :
break;
}
Rather than
switch(name)
{
case 'a':
case 'A':
break;
}
Just curious as my code seems to run fine either way but I want to get into the habit of using the proper/most accepted way.
It's not bad practice. In fact, it's considered concise and time-efficient.
Take a look at the following code that you have
switch(name){
case 'a', 'A' :
break;
}
The equivalent without using commas would be:
switch(name){
case 'a':
break;
case 'A':
break;
}
And the if-else equivalent would be:
if(name=='a'){
//Do something
}else if(name=='A'){
//Do something
}
Of these, the first example took a mere 36 characters to type. The latter took 49, and the last one took 37 characters.
Moral? Using the comma is definitely more concise and time-efficient that using two cases with a single result. Even the if statements would be more concise.
CheckStyle, the defacto standard for java style, has no check for this.
Do whatever is easiest to read.
I would say though use only one style or the other in any given switch statement.
From JavaDocs: https://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/java/nutsandbolts/switch.html
class SwitchDemo2 {
public static void main(String[] args) {
int month = 2;
int year = 2000;
int numDays = 0;
switch (month) {
case 1: case 3: case 5:
case 7: case 8: case 10:
case 12:
numDays = 31;
break;
case 4: case 6:
case 9: case 11:
numDays = 30;
break;
case 2:
if (((year % 4 == 0) &&
!(year % 100 == 0))
|| (year % 400 == 0))
numDays = 29;
else
numDays = 28;
break;
default:
System.out.println("Invalid month.");
break;
}
System.out.println("Number of Days = "
+ numDays);
}
}
