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.

Answer 2

So you do not have to repeat code if you need several cases to do the same thing:

case THIS:
case THAT:
{
    code;
    break;
}

Or you can do things like :

case THIS:
{
   do this;
}
case THAT:
{
   do that;
}

In a cascade fashion.

Really bug/confusion prone, if you ask me.

Answer 3

Exactly, because with some clever placement you can execute blocks in cascade.

Answer 4

I think it is a mistake. As a language construct it is just as easy to have break as the default and instead have a fallthrough keyword. Most of the code I have written and read has a break after every case.

Answer 5

As people said before, it is to allow fall-through and it is not a mistake, it is a feature. If too many break statements annoy you, you can easily get rid of them by using return statements instead. This is actually a good practice, because your methods should be as small as possible (for the sake of readability and maintainability), so a switch statement is already big enough for a method, hence, a good method should not contain anything else, this is an example:

public class SwitchTester{
    private static final Log log = LogFactory.getLog(SwitchTester.class);
    public static void main(String[] args){
        log.info(monthsOfTheSeason(Season.WINTER));
        log.info(monthsOfTheSeason(Season.SPRING));
        log.info(monthsOfTheSeason(Season.SUMMER));
        log.info(monthsOfTheSeason(Season.AUTUMN));
    }

    enum Season{WINTER, SPRING, SUMMER, AUTUMN};

    static String monthsOfTheSeason(Season season){
        switch(season){
            case WINTER:
                return "Dec, Jan, Feb";
            case SPRING:
                return "Mar, Apr, May";
            case SUMMER:
                return "Jun, Jul, Aug";
            case AUTUMN:
                return "Sep, Oct, Nov";
            default:
                //actually a NullPointerException will be thrown before reaching this
                throw new IllegalArgumentException("Season must not be null");
        }        
    }
}   

The execution prints:

12:37:25.760 [main] INFO lang.SwitchTester - Dec, Jan, Feb
12:37:25.762 [main] INFO lang.SwitchTester - Mar, Apr, May
12:37:25.762 [main] INFO lang.SwitchTester - Jun, Jul, Aug
12:37:25.762 [main] INFO lang.SwitchTester - Sep, Oct, Nov

as expected.

Answer 6

You can makes easily to separate other type of number, month, count.
This is better then if in this case;

public static void spanishNumbers(String span){

    span = span.toLowerCase().replace(" ", "");
    switch (span){
     case "1":    
     case "jan":  System.out.println("uno"); break;    
     case "2":      
     case "feb":  System.out.println("dos"); break;    
     case "3":     
     case "mar":  System.out.println("tres"); break;   
     case "4":   
     case "apr":  System.out.println("cuatro"); break;
     case "5":    
     case "may":  System.out.println("cinco"); break;
     case "6":     
     case "jun":  System.out.println("seis"); break;
     case "7":    
     case "jul":  System.out.println("seite"); break;
     case "8":    
     case "aug":  System.out.println("ocho"); break;
     case "9":   
     case "sep":  System.out.println("nueve"); break;
     case "10":    
     case "oct": System.out.println("diez"); break;
     }
 }