Why do we need break after case statements?

Question

Why doesn\'t the compiler automatically put break statements after each code block in the switch? Is it for historical reasons? When would you want multiple code blocks to e

Answer 1

You can do all sorts of interesting things with case fall-through.

For example, lets say you want to do a particular action for all cases, but in a certain case you want to do that action plus something else. Using a switch statement with fall-through would make it quite easy.

switch (someValue)
{
    case extendedActionValue:
        // do extended action here, falls through to normal action
    case normalActionValue:
    case otherNormalActionValue:
        // do normal action here
        break;
}

Of course, it is easy to forget the break statement at the end of a case and cause unexpected behavior. Good compilers will warn you when you omit the break statement.