Why the switch statement cannot be applied on strings?

Question

Compiling the following code and got the error of type illegal.

int main()
{
    // Compilation error - switch expression of type illegal
    sw         


        

Answer 1

    cout << "\nEnter word to select your choice\n"; 
    cout << "ex to exit program (0)\n";     
    cout << "m     to set month(1)\n";
    cout << "y     to set year(2)\n";
    cout << "rm     to return the month(4)\n";
    cout << "ry     to return year(5)\n";
    cout << "pc     to print the calendar for a month(6)\n";
    cout << "fdc      to print the first day of the month(1)\n";
    cin >> c;
    cout << endl;
    a = c.compare("ex") ?c.compare("m") ?c.compare("y") ? c.compare("rm")?c.compare("ry") ? c.compare("pc") ? c.compare("fdc") ? 7 : 6 :  5  : 4 : 3 : 2 : 1 : 0;
    switch (a)
    {
        case 0:
            return 1;

        case 1:                   ///m
        {
            cout << "enter month\n";
            cin >> c;
            cout << endl;
            myCalendar.setMonth(c);
            break;
        }
        case 2:
            cout << "Enter year(yyyy)\n";
            cin >> y;
            cout << endl;
            myCalendar.setYear(y);
            break;
        case 3:
             myCalendar.getMonth();
            break;
        case 4:
            myCalendar.getYear();
        case 5:
            cout << "Enter month and year\n";
            cin >> c >> y;
            cout << endl;
            myCalendar.almanaq(c,y);
            break;
        case 6:
            break;

    }