Why do we need break after case statements?

Question

Why doesn\'t the compiler automatically put break statements after each code block in the switch? Is it for historical reasons? When would you want multiple code blocks to e

Answer 1

Java comes from C and that is the syntax from C.

There are times where you want multiple case statements to just have one execution path. Below is a sample that will tell you how many days in a month.

class SwitchDemo2 {
    public static void main(String[] args) {

        int month = 2;
        int year = 2000;
        int numDays = 0;

        switch (month) {
            case 1:
            case 3:
            case 5:
            case 7:
            case 8:
            case 10:
            case 12:
                numDays = 31;
                break;
            case 4:
            case 6:
            case 9:
            case 11:
                numDays = 30;
                break;
            case 2:
                if ( ((year % 4 == 0) && !(year % 100 == 0))
                     || (year % 400 == 0) )
                    numDays = 29;
                else
                    numDays = 28;
                break;
            default:
                System.out.println("Invalid month.");
                break;
        }
        System.out.println("Number of Days = " + numDays);
    }
}