What's difference between Switch() and If statement ?

shanali4

In the following code I've used if statement

<?php
$country="";
if ($country=="Pakistan")
echo "Hi, You have selected Pakistan";
elseif ($country=="India")
echo "Hi, You have selected India";
elseif ($country=="United states")
echo "Hi you have selected US";
else
echo "Your country is not in our list";
?>

Now in the following code i've used PHP switch () function to accomplish the same task as by if statement

<?php
$country="";
switch ($country)
{
case "Pakistan";
echo "Hi, You have selected Pakistan";
break;
case "India":
echo "Hi, You have selected India";
break;
case "United states":
echo "Hi you have selected US";
break;
default:
echo "Your country is not in our list";
}
?>

If we add Pakistan, India or united state in $country variables in both of the codes and execute them the result would be same in case of both if statement and switch ().

So actually what is difference between switch() and if statement.

laserlight

shanali4 wrote:
If we add Pakistan, India or united state in $country variables in both of the codes and execute them the result would be same in case of both if statement and switch ().

So actually what is difference between switch() and if statement.

In terms of style, the switch version makes it clearer that you intend to compare the value of $country with a number of possible values. Note that yet another alternative is to make these values the keys of an array, then check if the value of $country matches any of these keys, and if so, echo the corresponding value.

jkurrle

From what I understand, a Switch/Case bases its conditional on the value of a single variable. If you are instead testing against various conditions ($x <= 10), you need to use an if/elseif/else set of statements.

laserlight

jkurrle wrote:
If you are instead testing against various conditions ($x <= 10), you need to use an if/elseif/else set of statements.

It is possible to use a switch for that in PHP, but I do not particularly like the idea, which was first shown to me by Weedpacket:

<?php
$x = $y = 0;
switch (true)
{
case $x <= 10:
    echo '$x <= 10';
    break;
case $y > 0:
    echo '$y > 0';
    break;
default:
    echo 'FML';
}

jkurrle

Didn't know that. It seems unnatural to me to use it in that form, though. I think your above code would be easier to follow if it were in an if/elseif/else structure. Likewise, when all conditions are based on the value of a single variable, it makes more sense to put it into a switch/case.