Syntax

Syntax

You use switch statements to avoid chaining multiple if statements.

func main() {
    sec := time.Now().Unix()
    rand.Seed(sec)
    i := rand.Int31n(10)

    switch i {
    case 0:
        fmt.Print("zero...")
    case 1:
        fmt.Print("one...")
    case 2:
        fmt.Print("two...")
    }

    fmt.Println("ok")
}

Go executes each case of the switch statement until it finds a match for the condition.

We can include a default case to execute if no other case matches.

switch i {
case 0:
    fmt.Print("zero...")
case 1:
    fmt.Print("one...")
case 2:
    fmt.Print("two...")
default:
    fmt.Print("no match...")
}

Use multiple expressions

We can use multiple expressions in a switch statement, separate by using commas (,).

func location(city string) (string, string) {
    var region string
    var continent string
    switch city {
    case "Delhi", "Hyderabad", "Mumbai", "Chennai", "Kochi":
        region, continent = "India", "Asia"
    case "Lafayette", "Louisville", "Boulder":
        region, continent = "Colorado", "USA"
    case "Irvine", "Los Angeles", "San Diego":
        region, continent = "California", "USA"
    default:
        region, continent = "Unknown", "Unknown"
    }
    return region, continent
}

Invoke a function

A swtich statement can also invoke a function:

func main() {
    switch time.Now().Weekday().String() {
    case "Monday", "Tuesday", "Wednesday", "Thursday", "Friday":
        fmt.Println("It's time to learn some Go.")
    default:
        fmt.Println("It's weekend, time to rest!")
    }

    fmt.Println(time.Now().Weekday().String())
}

Or we can call a function from a case statement:

func main() {
    var email = regexp.MustCompile(`^[^@]+@[^@.]+\.[^@.]+`)
    var phone = regexp.MustCompile(`^[(]?[0-9][0-9][0-9][). \-]*[0-9][0-9][0-9][.\-]?[0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]`)

    contact := "foo@bar.com"

    switch {
      // Note the switch block as no validating expression. See the next section.
    case email.MatchString(contact):
        fmt.Println(contact, "is an email")
    case phone.MatchString(contact):
        fmt.Println(contact, "is a phone number")
    default:
        fmt.Println(contact, "is not recognized")
    }
}

Omit a condition

We can omit a condition in a switch statement. We are comparing it to true so we are forcing to run the switch block all the time.

func main() {
    rand.Seed(time.Now().Unix())
    r := rand.Float64()
    switch {
    case r > 0.1:
        fmt.Println("Common case, 90% of the time")
    default:
        fmt.Println("10% of the time")
    }
}

Make the logic fall through to the next case

In Go there is no break implementation inside a switch, as it’s the default behavior. If we want to fall through to the next case, we can use the fallthrough keyword.

func main() {
    switch num := 15; {
    case num < 50:
        fmt.Printf("%d is less than 50\n", num)
        fallthrough
    case num > 100:
        fmt.Printf("%d is greater than 100\n", num)
        fallthrough
    case num < 200:
        fmt.Printf("%d is less than 200", num)
    }
}

The output is:

is less than 50
is greater than 100
is less than 200