Switch statement: must default be the last case?

Question

Consider the following switch statement:

switch( value )
{
  case 1:
    return 1;
  default:
    value++;
    // fall-through
  case 2:
    ret         


        

Answer 1

There's no defined order in a switch statement. You may look at the cases as something like a named label, like a goto label. Contrary to what people seem to think here, in the case of value 2 the default label is not jumped to. To illustrate with a classical example, here is Duff's device, which is the poster child of the extremes of switch/case in C.

send(to, from, count)
register short *to, *from;
register count;
{
  register n=(count+7)/8;
  switch(count%8){
    case 0: do{ *to = *from++;
    case 7:     *to = *from++;
    case 6:     *to = *from++;
    case 5:     *to = *from++;
    case 4:     *to = *from++;
    case 3:     *to = *from++;
    case 2:     *to = *from++;
    case 1:     *to = *from++;
            }while(--n>0);
  }
}