Switch statement with returns — code correctness

Question

Let\'s say I have code in C with approximately this structure:

switch (something)
{
    case 0:
      return \"blah\";
      break;

    case 1:
    case 4:
         


        

Answer 1

If you have "lookup" type of code, you could package the switch-case clause in a method by itself.

I have a few of these in a "hobby" system I'm developing for fun:

private int basePerCapitaIncomeRaw(int tl) {
    switch (tl) {
        case 0:     return 7500;
        case 1:     return 7800;
        case 2:     return 8100;
        case 3:     return 8400;
        case 4:     return 9600;
        case 5:     return 13000;
        case 6:     return 19000;
        case 7:     return 25000;
        case 8:     return 31000;
        case 9:     return 43000;
        case 10:    return 67000;
        case 11:    return 97000;
        default:    return 130000;
    }
}

(Yep. That's GURPS space...)

I agree with others that you should in most cases avoid more than one return in a method, and I do recognize that this one might have been better implemented as an array or something else. I just found switch-case-return to be a pretty easy match to a lookup table with a 1-1 correlation between input and output, like the above thing (role-playing games are full of them, I am sure they exist in other "businesses" as well) :D

On the other hand, if the case-clause is more complex, or something happens after the switch-statement, I wouldn't recommend using return in it, but rather set a variable in the switch, end it with a break, and return the value of the variable in the end.

(On the ... third? hand... you can always refactor a switch into its own method... I doubt it will have an effect on performance, and it wouldn't surprise me if modern compilers could even recognize it as something that could be inlined...)