Switch statement equivalent in Windows batch file

Question

I wonder if there is a simple way to branch execution in a Windows batch file depending on the value of one single expression. Something akin to switch/case blocks in C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, PHP, and other real programming languages.

My only workaround is a plain if/else block where the same expression is repeatedly checked for equality against different values:

IF "%ID%"=="0" (   REM do something ) ELSE IF "%ID%"=="1" (   REM do something else ) ELSE IF "%ID%"=="2" (   REM do another thing ) ELSE (   REM default case... ) 

So dumb. Is there a better solution?

Answer 1

I ended up using label names containing the values for the case expressions as suggested by AjV Jsy. Anyway, I use CALL instead of GOTO to jump into the correct case block and GOTO :EOF to jump back. The following sample code is a complete batch script illustrating the idea.

@ECHO OFF  SET /P COLOR="Choose a background color (type red, blue or black): "  2>NUL CALL :CASE_%COLOR% # jump to :CASE_red, :CASE_blue, etc. IF ERRORLEVEL 1 CALL :DEFAULT_CASE # If label doesn't exist  ECHO Done. EXIT /B  :CASE_red   COLOR CF   GOTO END_CASE :CASE_blue   COLOR 9F   GOTO END_CASE :CASE_black   COLOR 0F   GOTO END_CASE :DEFAULT_CASE   ECHO Unknown color "%COLOR%"   GOTO END_CASE :END_CASE   VER > NUL # reset ERRORLEVEL   GOTO :EOF # return from CALL