14.9

The

switch

 Statement

BLOCKS AND STATEMENTS

If no

case

 matches but there is a

default

 label, then all statements after the

matching

default

 label in the switch block, if any, are executed in sequence.

If all these statements complete normally, or if there are no statements after

the

default

 label, then the entire

switch

 statement completes normally.

If no

case

 matches and there is no

default

 label, then no further action is

taken and the

switch

 statement completes normally.

If any statement immediately contained by the

Block

 body of the

switch

statement completes abruptly, it is handled as follows:

If execution of the

Statement

 completes abruptly because of a

break

 with no

label, no further action is taken and the

switch

 statement completes normally.

If execution of the

Statement

 completes abruptly for any other reason, the

switch

 statement completes abruptly for the same reason. The case of abrupt

completion because of a

break

 with a label is handled by the general rule for

labeled statements ( 14.6).

As in C and C++, execution of statements in a switch block  falls through

labels  in Java. For example, the program:

class Toomany {

static void howMany(int k) {

switch (k) {

case 1:

System.out.print("one ");

case 2:

System.out.print("too ");

case 3:

System.out.println("many");

}

}

public static void main(String[] args) {

howMany(3);

howMany(2);

howMany(1);

}

}

contains a switch block in which the code for each case falls through into the code

for the next case. As a result, the program prints:

many

too many

one too many

If code is not to fall through case to case in this manner, then

break

 statements

should be used, as in this example:

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