Using The switch Statement in Java

The switch statement is one of the selection statements in Java. We can use this statement with the break statement to define and control the flow in our code.

In this tutorial, we’ll show you some examples of how to use the switch statement in Java.

Info: Except the switch statement, the if-else statement is another selection statement that we can use to execute our code conditionally in our Java program.

What You’ll Need

• Oracle JDK 1.7 or above

Supported Argument Types

We can’t pass all data types to switch statement. The switch statement only can accept the following types of argument:

• char
• byte
• short
• int
• Character
• Byte
• Short
• Integer
• enum
• String

Note: Beginning with Java 7, we can pass String type argument to switch statement to compare the value.

Example 1: Using int Type Argument

This is the code snippet of switch statement with int type argument.

IntSwitchStatementExample.java

public class IntSwitchStatementExample {
 
    public static void main(String[] args) {
 
        // Using int type argument in the switch statement
        int monthNumber = 6;
 
        switch (monthNumber) {
            case 1:
                System.out.println("Month number " + monthNumber + " is January");
                break;
            case 2:
                System.out.println("Month number " + monthNumber + " is February");
                break;
            case 3:
                System.out.println("Month number " + monthNumber + " is March");
                break;
            case 4:
                System.out.println("Month number " + monthNumber + " is April");
                break;
            case 5:
                System.out.println("Month number " + monthNumber + " is May");
                break;
            case 6:
                System.out.println("Month number " + monthNumber + " is June");
                break;
            case 7:
                System.out.println("Month number " + monthNumber + " is July");
                break;
            case 8:
                System.out.println("Month number " + monthNumber + " is August");
                break;
            case 9:
                System.out.println("Month number " + monthNumber + " is September");
                break;
            case 10:
                System.out.println("Month number " + monthNumber + " is October");
                break;
            case 11:
                System.out.println("Month number " + monthNumber + " is November");
                break;
            case 12:
                System.out.println("Month number " + monthNumber + " is December");
                break;
            default:
                System.out.println("Month number " + monthNumber + " is an invalid month");
        }
 
    }
 
}

Output:

Month number 6 is June

Example 2: Using String Type Argument

This is the code snippet of switch statement with String type argument.

StringSwitchStatementExample.java

public class StringSwitchStatementExample {
 
    public static void main(String[] args) {
 
        // Using String type argument in the switch statement
        String day = "Saturday";
 
        switch (day) {
            case "Monday":
            case "Tuesday":
            case "Wednesday":
            case "Thursday":
            case "Friday":
                System.out.println(day + " is weekday");
                break;
            case "Saturday":
            case "Sunday":
                System.out.println(day + " is weekend");
                break;
            default:
                System.out.println(day + " is an invalid day");
        }
 
    }
 
}

Output:

Saturday is weekend

Example 3: Using enum Type Argument

This is the code snippet of switch statement with enum type argument.

EnumSwitchStatementExample.java

public class EnumSwitchStatementExample {
 
    public static void main(String[] args) {
 
        // Using enum type argument in the switch statement
        Day day = Day.TUESDAY;
 
        switch (day) {
            case MONDAY:
            case TUESDAY:
            case WEDNESDAY:
            case THURSDAY:
            case FRIDAY:
                System.out.println(day + " is weekday");
                break;
            case SATURDAY:
            case SUNDAY:
                System.out.println(day + " is weekend");
                break;
            default:
                System.out.println(day + " is an invalid day");
        }
 
    }
 
}
 
enum Day {
    MONDAY, TUESDAY, WEDNESDAY, THURSDAY, SATURDAY, SUNDAY
}

Output:

TUESDAY is weekday

Summary

In this tutorial, we have shown you several examples of using switch statement with different types of argument such as int, String and enum.

You can get the example codes of this tutorial on GitHub.

• Code