On 12/05/2009 06:25 PM, Nick Sabalausky wrote:
Also, I still don't see how there's any semantic difference between the
current switch and the switch-like if-else chain other than just the fact
that switch currently carries the restriction that the values being checked
against must be unique and known at compile time.
If I understand switch correctly, it is analogous to this:
a = x;
if( a == exp1) goto Case1;
if( a == exp2) goto Case2;
...
if( a == expN) goto CaseN;
assert(0);
Case1:
...
Case2:
...
...
CaseN:
...
except that the case expressions aren't required to be in any order and
the compiler has a fair amount of freedom in implementing those
conditional jumps. Conceivably, you could even forgo the if statements
and have computed goto statements if your cases are nice enough.
Also note the value being compared doesn't change while it is being
compared. If statements are a bit less disciplined in that regard.
