Help with switch statement

Question

I am relatively new to java. In a switch statement, do you have to put a break statement after each case?

Answer 1

No, you don't have to. If you omit the break statement, however, all of the remaining statements inside the switch block are executed, regardless of the case value they are being tested with.

This can produce undesired results sometimes, as in the following code:

switch (grade) {
    case 'A':
        System.out.println("You got an A!");
        //Notice the lack of a 'break' statement
    case 'B':
        System.out.println("You got a B!");
    case 'C':
        System.out.println("You got a C.");
    case 'D':
        System.out.println("You got a D.");
    default:
        System.out.println("You failed. :(");
}

If you set the grade variable to 'A', this would be your result:

You got an A!
You got a B.
You got a C.
You got a D.
You failed. :(

Answer 2

You don't have to break after each case, but if you don't they will flow into each other. Sometimes you want to bundle multiple cases together by leaving out the breaks.