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

The default condition can be anyplace within the switch that a case clause can exist. It is not required to be the last clause. I have seen code that put the default as the first clause. The case 2: gets executed normally, even though the default clause is above it.

As a test, I put the sample code in a function, called test(int value){} and ran:

  printf("0=%d\n", test(0));
  printf("1=%d\n", test(1));
  printf("2=%d\n", test(2));
  printf("3=%d\n", test(3));
  printf("4=%d\n", test(4));

The output is:

0=2
1=1
2=4
3=8
4=10