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Switch statements can often be replaced by a good OO design. For example, you have an Account class, and are using a switch statement to perform a different calculation based on the type of account.
The switch statement is similar to a series of IF statements on the same expression. In many occasions, you may want to compare the same variable (or expression) with many different values, and execute a different piece of code depending on which value it equals to. This is exactly what the switch statement is for.
Case statement is used for conditional operations. Sometimes, it is considered in the category of code smell. Switch case is not a bad syntax, but its usage in some cases categorizes it under code smell. It is considered a smell, if it is being used in OOPS.
Last but not least, because a switch statement requires us to modify a lot of classes, it violates the Open-Closed Principle from the SOLID principles. To conclude, switch statement are bad because they are error-prone and they are not maintainable.
I have a code that parses some template files and when it finds a placeholder, it replaces it with a value. Something like:
<html>
<head>
<title>%title%</title>
</head>
<body bgcolor="%color%">
...etc.
In code, the parser finds those, calls this function:
string getContent(const string& name)
{
if (name == "title")
return page->getTitle();
else if (name == "color")
return getBodyColor();
...etc.
}
and then replaces the original placeholder with returned value.
In real case, it is not a dummy web page, and there are many (50+) different placeholders that can occur.
My code is C++, but I guess this problem exists with any language. It's more about algorithms and OO design I guess. Only important thing is that this must be compiled, even if I wanted I couldn't have any dynamic/eval'd code.
I though about implementing Chain of Responsibility pattern, but it doesn't seem it would improve the situation much.
UPDATE: and I'm also concerned about this comment in another thread. Should I care about it?
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