Is a default case necessary in a switch statement? Ans. No, but it is not a bad idea to put default statements in switch statements for error- or logic-checking purposes. For instance, the following switch statement is perfectly normal: switch (char_code) { case 'Y': case 'y': printf('You answered YES!\n'); break; case 'N': case 'n': printf('You answered NO!\n'); break; } Consider, however, what would happen if an unknown character code were passed to this switch statement. The program would not print anything. It would be a good idea, therefore, to insert a default case where this condition would be taken care of: ... default: printf('Unknown response: %d\n', char_code); break; ... Additionally, default cases come in handy for logic checking. For instance, if your switch statement handled a fixed number of conditions and you considered any value outside those conditions to be a logic error, you could insert a default case which would flag that condition. Consider the following example: void move_cursor(int direction) { switch (direction) { case UP: cursor_up(); break; case DOWN: cursor_down(); break; case LEFT: cursor_left(); break; case RIGHT: cursor_right(); break; default: printf('Logic error on line number %ld!!!\n', __LINE__); break; } } - Study24x7
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Ashish Verma
13 Mar 2023 12:27 PM study24x7 study24x7

Is a default case necessary in a switch statement? Ans. No, but it is not a bad idea to put default statements in switch statements for error- or logic-checking purposes. For instance, the following switch statement is perfectly normal: switch (char_code) { case 'Y': ...

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