The JavaScript Switch Conditional
Learn the basics of the JavaScript Switch Conditional
An if/else
statement is great when you have a few options to choose.
When they are too many however it might be overkill. Your code will look too complex.
In this case you might want to use a switch
conditional:
switch(<expression>) {
//cases
}
based on the result of the expression, JavaScript will trigger one specific case you define:
const a = 2
switch(a) {
case 1:
//handle case a is 1
break
case 2:
//handle case a is 2
break
case 3:
//handle case a is 3
break
}
You must add a break
statement at the bottom of each case, otherwise JavaScript will also execute the code in the next case (and sometimes this is useful, but beware of bugs).
When used inside a function, if the switch defines a return value, instead of using break
you can just use return
:
const doSomething = (a) => {
switch(a) {
case 1:
//handle case a is 1
return 'handled 1'
case 2:
//handle case a is 2
return 'handled 2'
case 3:
//handle case a is 3
return 'handled 3'
}
}
You can provide a default
special case, which is called when no case handles the result of the expression:
const a = 2
switch(a) {
case 1:
//handle case a is 1
break
case 2:
//handle case a is 2
break
case 3:
//handle case a is 3
break
default:
//handle all other cases
break
}
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