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From: mike@enmasse.UUCP (Mike Schloss)
Newsgroups: net.lang.c
Subject: Re: generalized switch
Message-ID: <354@enmasse.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 13-Aug-86 23:49:46 EDT
Article-I.D.: enmasse.354
Posted: Wed Aug 13 23:49:46 1986
Date-Received: Thu, 14-Aug-86 08:27:54 EDT
References: <15093@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> <2765@brl-smoke.ARPA> <15120@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> <480@mcgill-vision.UUCP>
Reply-To: mike@enmasse.UUCP (Mike Schloss)
Organization: EnMasse Computer Corp, Acton, MA
Lines: 16

->[Discussion about switch versus if/elseif]
->> As I understand it, a switch/case setup compiles exactly the same as
->> 	if (var == const1) {.....};
->> 	else if (var == const2) {.....};
->> 	else  {default_action};
->> anyway. (Or am i wrong?).
->
->In a way.  They are the same in the sense that i=i+j and i+=j are the
->same.  The switch expression is evaluated only once, which can be
->important:
->
->	switch (*bufp++)

One other difference is that case statements are optimized by some compilers
to use jump tables and such so they can be much more efficient than repeated
if/else statements.