In Java, a switch statement generally allows the application to have multiple possible execution paths based on the value of a given expression in runtime. The evaluated expression is called the selector expression which must be of type char, byte, short, int, Character, Byte, Short, Integer, String, or an enum.
- Java 14 (JEP 361) adds a new form of switch label “
case L ->
” which allows multiple constants per case. - New switch expressions can yield a value for the whole switch-case block that can then be assigned to a variable in same statement.
1. Switch Expressions
In Java 14, switch expressions are a standard feature. In Java 13 and Java 12, it was added as a preview feature.
- It has the support of multiple case labels and using keyword
yield
to return value in place of oldreturn
keyword. - It also support returning value via label rules (arrow operator similar to lambda).
- If we use arraw
(->)
operator, we can skipyield
keyword as shown in isWeekDayV1_1(). - If we use colon
(:)
operator, we need to useyield
keyword as shown in isWeekDayV1_2(). - In case of multiple statements, use curly braces along with
yield
keyword as shown in isWeekDayV2(). - In case of
enum
, we can skip the default case. If there is any missing value not handled in cases, compiler will complain. In all other expression types (int, strings etc), we must providedefault
case as well.
public class SwitchExpressions
{
public static void main(String[] argv)
{
System.out.println(isWeekDayV1_1(Day.MON)); //true
System.out.println(isWeekDayV1_2(Day.MON)); //true
System.out.println(isWeekDayV2(Day.MON)); //true
}
//1 - Return value directly
enum Day {
MON, TUE, WED, THUR, FRI, SAT, SUN
};
public static Boolean isWeekDayV1_1 (Day day)
{
Boolean result = switch(day) {
case MON, TUE, WED, THUR, FRI -> true;
case SAT, SUN -> false;
};
return result;
}
public static Boolean isWeekDayV1_2 (Day day)
{
Boolean result = switch(day) {
case MON, TUE, WED, THUR, FRI : yield true;
case SAT, SUN : yield false;
};
return result;
}
//2 - Multiple statements in case block
public static Boolean isWeekDayV2 (Day day)
{
Boolean result = switch(day) {
case MON, TUE, WED, THUR, FRI ->
{
System.out.println("It is WeekDay");
yield true;
}
case SAT, SUN ->
{
System.out.println("It is Weekend");
yield false;
}
};
return result;
}
}
2. Difference between yield
and return
- A
return
statement returns control to the invoker of a method or constructor. - A yield statement transfers control by causing an enclosing
switch
expression to produce a specified value.
SwitchExpression:
YieldStatement:
yield Expression;
In the above pseudo-code:
SwitchExpression
tries to find a correctYieldStatement
to transfer control to innermost enclosingyield
target.SwitchExpression
terminates normally and the value of theExpression
becomes the value of theSwitchExpression
.- If the evaluation of the
Expression
completes abruptly for some reason, then theyield
statement completes abruptly for same reason.
Happy Learning !!