CODEWITHSUNDEEP
phpswitch-statement
Gokul N K
Gokul N K

Reputation: 2458

Can I use the same case value multiple times in a switch

Can I write a switch statement like this? 

   switch ($mood) {

    case hungry : 
    case sad : 
    echo 'Eat a chocolate';


    case sad : 
    echo 'Call Up your friend';

    }

Is this a good practice?

EDIT : Removed the break statement, based on the comment.

Upvotes: 3

Views: 3082

Answers (2)

doraemon
doraemon

Reputation: 398

This question shown on top for a search, so I wanted to write correct approach. You don't need to write case "sad" multiple times, if it enters to case "sad" it will continue down until "break".

 $mood= "sad";
   switch ($mood) {

    case "sad" : 
    echo 'Eat a chocolate';

    case "hungry" : 
    echo 'Call Up your friend';

    }

or

  $mood= "sad";
    switch ($mood) {

    case "sad" : 
    echo 'Eat a chocolate';

    case "hungry" : 
    echo 'Call Up your friend';
    break;
    }

And I don't think it as bad practice because this is cleaner than if else statement.

A good use scenario is handling changes to database according to version of the code/plugin. For example if you have to make some changes according to version of the code on your update call, you can use this approach.

  switch ($version) 
    {
      case "1.0":
        // add x field to table a
        // remove y field from table a
      case "1.1":
       // add z field to table b
      case "1.2":
       // create a new table c
      case "1.5":
       // add field m to table c
}

So if version is 1.1, the code in 1.1 and below (until latest version) will be executed. So it is cleaner approach than if statements.

Upvotes: 0

Amal Murali
Amal Murali

Reputation: 76656

It is technically possible to define multiple cases with the same value, but only the first case will get executed. So it's pretty much useless.

From the switch() documentation:

PHP continues to execute the statements until the end of the switch block, or the first time it sees a break statement.

Since the first case has a break in it, further cases won't be executed and the code will exit the switch() block.

Consider the following piece of code:

$var = 'sad';

switch ($var) {
    case 'sad':
        echo 'First';
        break;
    case 'sad':
        echo 'Second';
        break;
}

This will output First.

If you want to execute multiple statements if a condition is TRUE, then add them under the same case, like so:

switch ($var) {
    case 'sad':
        echo 'First';
        echo 'Second';
        break;
}

Upvotes: 5

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