Skip to main content
Version: Zig 0.14.0 (dev)

Switch

Zig's switch works as both a statement and an expression. The types of all branches must coerce to the type which is being switched upon. All possible values must have an associated branch - values cannot be left out. Cases cannot fall through to other branches.

An example of a switch statement. The else is required to satisfy the exhaustiveness of this switch.

const expect = @import("std").testing.expect;

test "switch statement" {
var x: i8 = 10;
switch (x) {
-1...1 => {
x = -x;
},
10, 100 => {
//special considerations must be made
//when dividing signed integers
x = @divExact(x, 10);
},
else => {},
}
try expect(x == 1);
}

Here is the former, but as a switch expression.

const expect = @import("std").testing.expect;

test "switch expression" {
var x: i8 = 10;
x = switch (x) {
-1...1 => -x,
10, 100 => @divExact(x, 10),
else => x,
};
try expect(x == 1);
}
info

Now is the perfect time to use what you've learned and solve a problem together.