How to handle multiple values inside one case?

Question

How to handle multiple values inside one case? So if I want to execute the same action for value "first option" and "second option"?

Is this the right way?

switch(text)
{
    case "first option":
    {
    }
    case "second option":
    {
        string a="first or Second";
        break;
    }
}

See [this](http://csharp.net-tutorials.com/basics/switch-statement/) article for some guidelines. The main thing that jumps out at me is that the first case is missing a `break` statement — Mord Zuber, Jan 14 '15 at 13:08
Friendly suggestion - get used to [documentation](http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/06tc147t.aspx) — Renatas M., Jan 14 '15 at 13:13
Thanks @Max the article was helpful. i deliberately escaped a break to cover cases and let execution continue.The brackets after the first case were the root cause of my problem. — CodeBreaker, Jan 14 '15 at 13:19
Duplicate of [Multiple Cases in Switch](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/68578/multiple-cases-in-switch). — Omar, Jan 14 '15 at 13:21

Patrick Hofman · Accepted Answer · 2015-01-14T13:14:56.040

19

It's called 'multiple labels' in the documentation, which can be found in the C# documentation on MSDN.

A switch statement can include any number of switch sections, and each section can have one or more case labels (as shown in the string case labels example below). However, no two case labels may contain the same constant value.

Your altered code:

string a = null;

switch(text)
{
    case "first option":
    case "second option":
    {
        a = "first or Second";
        break;
    }
}

Note that I pulled the string a out since else your a will only be available inside the switch.

edited Jan 14 '15 at 13:14

answered Jan 14 '15 at 13:07

Patrick Hofman

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Isn't that quite the same. I thought that case "a": case "b" was just an empty "a" statement that falls though. – Patrick Hofman Jan 14 '15 at 13:15
No, in fall through you would have the first block executed. In C# there cannot be a code block for the first option. Btw, I misread, it's not explicitly called "multiple labels". – helb Jan 14 '15 at 13:16
@helb: Okay. Got that. Edited the important part of the docs in. Thanks. – Patrick Hofman Jan 14 '15 at 13:17
@helb: I noticed too that the name isn't exact, but it will give a hint where to search for. – Patrick Hofman Jan 14 '15 at 13:18

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 14 '15 at 13:12

It is possible

switch(i)
                {
                    case 4:
                    case 5:
                    case 6: 
                        {
                            //do someting
                            break; 
                        }
                }

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Jan 14 '15 at 13:09

You may be better off using just an if statement if you want to be able to treat both together and separate as distinct cases:

if (first && second)
{
    Console.WriteLine("first and second");
}
else if (first)
{
    Console.WriteLine("first only");
}
else if (second)
{
    Console.WriteLine("second only");
}

How to handle multiple values inside one case?

3 Answers3