The switch Statement

This lesson covers branching on several possible values with a switch statement in C, more readable than a long chain of if statements. It's for anyone searching "C switch statement usage."

A switch statement is a more readable way to branch on a single value than stacking up if / else if. Don't forget break.

The example prints a different message for case 1 through case 3 depending on the value of day, falling back to default for "some other day" otherwise. Needing a break at the end of every case is a distinctive feature of C.

A common early mistake is forgetting break. Skip it, and execution falls through into the next case's logic — you need a break at the end of every case.

In real projects, this is a frequently-used construct for organizing a branch with many options more clearly than a chain of if/else.

📖 Reference code

#include <stdio.h>

int main(void) {
    int day = 3;
    switch (day) {
        case 1:
            printf("Monday\n");
            break;
        case 2:
            printf("Tuesday\n");
            break;
        case 3:
            printf("Wednesday\n");
            break;
        default:
            printf("Some other day\n");
    }
    return 0;
}

✍️ Your code

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🧪 This site can't compile or run C directly, so it checks on the spot whether what you typed matches the reference code (scoring happens entirely in your browser — nothing is sent anywhere).