Alright, so I wanted to mess around with Java cases, you know, those switch statements. I’ve used them a bit before, but I wanted to really dig in and see what I could do with them. So, I fired up my trusty old IDE, and I started a new project. Just a simple, blank Java project, nothing fancy. I figured I’d start with the basics, just to refresh my memory.
Basic String Switch
First, I made a simple `String` variable, you know, like `String day = “Monday”;`. Then, I wrote a switch statement based on that `day` variable.
java
switch (day) {
case “Monday”:
*(“Ugh, Mondays.”);
break;
case “Tuesday”:
*(“Taco Tuesday!”);
break;
// … other days …
default:
*(“Just another day.”);
I put in cases for each day of the week, and added some silly print statements inside. Easy peasy. I ran it, changed the `day` variable a few times, and it worked like a charm. No surprises there.
Playing with Integers
Next, I wanted to see how it handled integers. So, I made an `int` variable, named it something like `score`, and set it to, say, 75. Then, I did another switch:
java
switch (score / 10) {
case 10:
case 9:
*(“Excellent!”);
break;
case 8:
*(“Pretty good!”);
break;
case 7:
*(“Could be better.”);
break;
//… and so on…
default:
*(“Needs improvement.”);
Notice the `/ 10` in the switch? I did that to group scores into ranges. Like, 90-100 is excellent, 80-89 is pretty good, etc. It felt a bit cleaner than doing a separate case for every single number. I ran that, and it worked exactly how I expected.
Fall-Through Fun
Now, this is where it got a little more interesting. I remembered that Java switch cases have this “fall-through” thing. Meaning, if you don’t put a `break` statement, it’ll just keep going to the next case. I decided to play around with that.
I set up a switch on a character, something like `char grade = ‘B’;`:
java
switch (grade) {
case ‘A’:
*(“Awesome!”);
case ‘B’:
*(“Good job!”);
case ‘C’:
*(“You passed.”);
default:
*(“Keep trying!”);
See how there’s no `break` after the `A` and `B` cases? I set `grade` to ‘B’, and it printed both “Good job!” and “You passed.”. Because it “fell through” from ‘B’ to ‘C’. Pretty neat, and I could see how that might be useful in some situations, but also a bit dangerous if you forget the `break`.
Enums – The Cool Kids
Then, I thought, “Hey, what about enums?”. I’d heard enums and switches were a good match. So, I defined a simple enum:
java
enum TrafficLight {
RED, YELLOW, GREEN
And then I made a switch based on that:
java
TrafficLight light = *;
switch (light) {
case RED:
*(“Stop!”);
break;
case YELLOW:
*(“Slow down!”);
break;
case GREEN:
*(“Go!”);
break;
This felt really clean and organized. The enum made the code much more readable, I think. And the switch just naturally fit with the enum values. I liked this a lot.
So, that’s what I did. I just played around with different types, experimented with the fall-through, and tried out enums. It wasn’t anything groundbreaking, but it was a good way to solidify my understanding of how Java cases work. The enum thing, in particular, was a nice little “aha!” moment for me. I’ll definitely be using that more in the future. It felt like a good, solid way to spend a bit of time, you know, just poking around and getting my hands dirty with the code.
