Java fall through switch statements

Paul Richard

Answered on 18th Jan, 2018

 Following rules govern the fall through the behavior of switch statement.

1. When the variable being switched on is equal to a case, the statements following that case will execute until a break statement is reached.

2. When a break statement is reached, the switch terminates, and the flow of control jumps to the next line following the switch statement.

3. Not every case needs to contain a break. If no break appears, the flow of control will fall through to subsequent cases until a break is reached.

Following is an example

Live Demo

public class Test {

   public static void main(String args[]) {
      // char grade = args[0].charAt(0);
      char grade = 'C';

      switch(grade) {
         case 'A' :
            System.out.println("Excellent!");
            break;
         case 'B' :
         case 'C' :
            System.out.println("Well done");
            break;
         case 'D' :
            System.out.println("You passed");
         case 'F' :
            System.out.println("Better try again");
            break;
         default :
            System.out.println("Invalid grade");
      }
      System.out.println("Your grade is " + grade);
   }
}

Compile and run the above program using various command line arguments. This will produce the following result −

Output

Well done
Your grade is C