Combine return and switch

Question

How can I combine return and switch case statements?

I want something like

return switch(a)        {           case 1:"lalala"           case 2:"blalbla"           case 3:"lolollo"           default:"default"         }; 

I know about this solution

switch(a) {     case 1: return "lalala";     case 2: return "blalbla";     case 3: return "lolollo";     default: return "default"; } 

But I want to only use the return operator.

Answer 1

Actually this is possible using switch expressions starting with C# 8.

return a switch     {         1 => "lalala",         2 => "blalbla",         3 => "lolollo",         _ => "default"     }; 

Switch Expressions

There are several syntax improvements here:

• The variable comes before the switch keyword. The different order makes it visually easy to distinguish the switch expression from the switch statement.
• The case and : elements are replaced with =>. It's more concise and intuitive.
• The default case is replaced with a _ discard.
• The bodies are expressions, not statements.

For more information and examples check the Microsoft's C# 8 Whats New.

Answer 2

Note: As of C#8 (ten years later!) this is now possible, please see the answer below.

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switch and return can't combine that way, because switch is a statement, not an expression (i.e., it doesn't return a value).
If you really want to use just a single return, you could make a Dictionary to map the switch variable to return values:

var map = new Dictionary<int, string>()  {     {1, "lala"},      {2, "lolo"},      {3, "haha"},  }; string output; return map.TryGetValue(a, out output) ? output : "default";