Is Switch (Case) always wrong?

Question

Are there instances where switch(case) is is a good design choice (except for simplicity) over strategy or similar patterns...

Answer 1

Yes, definitely. Many times your switch is only relevant to a very small part of your overall logic and it would be a mistake to create whole new classes just for this minor effect.

For example, let's say you have a database of words, the user input another word, and you want to find that word in the database but include possible plurals. You might write something like (C++)

vector possible_forms;
possible_forms.push_back(word);
char last_letter = word[word.size() - 1];
switch (last_letter) {
  case 's':
  case 'i':
  case 'z':
    possible_forms.push_back(word + "es");
    break;
  case 'y':
    possible_forms.push_back(word.substr(0, word.size() - 1) + "ies");
    break;
  default:
    possible_forms.push_back(word + "s");
}

Doing this with strategies would be overkill.