57. The switch statement rules

• In Java, switch, case, break, and default are reserved words

• The switchExpression (also called the selector) can of types

  • int, byte, short, char

  • enumerated types

  • String

  • Character, Byte, Short, or Integer object

• In a switch statement, the switchExpression is evaluated first to determine which action statements should be selected for execution

• The statements that follow the matching case value are executed

• A particular case value must appear only once in the switch statement

• One or more statements may follow a case label -- no need to use braces to turn multiple statements into a single compound statement

• The default label is optional