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DZone > Java Zone > New Java 7 Feature: String in Switch support

New Java 7 Feature: String in Switch support

Vineet Manohar user avatar by
Vineet Manohar
·
Mar. 22, 11 · Java Zone · Interview
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One of the new features added in Java 7 is the capability to switch on a String.

With Java 6, or less

    String color = "red";  

if (color.equals("red")) {
System.out.println("Color is Red");
} else if (color.equals("green")) {
System.out.println("Color is Green");
} else {
System.out.println("Color not found");
}
 String color = "red";

 if (color.equals("red")) {
   System.out.println("Color is Red");
 } else if (color.equals("green")) {
   System.out.println("Color is Green");
 } else {
   System.out.println("Color not found");
 }

With Java 7:

String color = "red";  

switch (color) {
case "red":
System.out.println("Color is Red");
break;
case "green":
System.out.println("Color is Green");
break;
default:
System.out.println("Color not found");
}
Conclusion

The switch statement when used with a String uses the equals() method to compare the given expression to each value in the case statement and is therefore case-sensitive and will throw a NullPointerException if the expression is null. It is a small but useful feature which not only helps us write more readable code but the compiler will likely generate more efficient bytecode as compared to the if-then-else statement.

 

From http://www.vineetmanohar.com/2011/03/new-java-7-feature-string-in-switch-support/

Java (programming language) Strings Data Types

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