Theswitch statement evaluates anexpression, matching the expression's value against a series ofcase clauses, and executesstatements after the firstcase clause with a matching value, until abreak statement is encountered. Thedefault clause of aswitch statement will be jumped to if nocase matches the expression's value.

Try it

const expr = "Papayas";switch (expr) {  case "Oranges":    console.log("Oranges are $0.59 a pound.");    break;  case "Mangoes":  case "Papayas":    console.log("Mangoes and papayas are $2.79 a pound.");    // Expected output: "Mangoes and papayas are $2.79 a pound."    break;  default:    console.log(`Sorry, we are out of ${expr}.`);}

Syntax

switch (expression) {  case caseExpression1:    statements  case caseExpression2:    statements  // …  case caseExpressionN:    statements  default:    statements}

expression

An expression whose result is matched against eachcase clause.

caseExpressionNOptional

Acase clause used to match againstexpression. If the value ofexpression matches the value of anycaseExpressionN, execution starts from the first statement after thatcase clause until either the end of theswitch statement or the first encounteredbreak.

defaultOptional

Adefault clause; if provided, this clause is executed if the value ofexpression doesn't match any of thecase clauses. Aswitch statement can only have onedefault clause.

Description

Aswitch statement first evaluates its expression. It then looks for the firstcase clause whose expression evaluates to the same value as the result of the input expression (using thestrict equality comparison) and transfers control to that clause, executing all statements following that clause.

The clause expressions are only evaluated when necessary — if a match is already found, subsequentcase clause expressions will not be evaluated, even when they will be visited byfall-through.

switch (undefined) {  case console.log(1):  case console.log(2):}// Only logs 1

If no matchingcase clause is found, the program looks for the optionaldefault clause, and if found, transfers control to that clause, executing statements following that clause. If nodefault clause is found, the program continues execution at the statement following the end ofswitch. By convention, thedefault clause is the last clause, but it does not need to be so. Aswitch statement may only have onedefault clause; multipledefault clauses will result in aSyntaxError.

Breaking and fall-through

You can use thebreak statement within aswitch statement's body to break out early, often when all statements between twocase clauses have been executed. Execution will continue at the first statement followingswitch.

Ifbreak is omitted, execution will proceed to the nextcase clause, even to thedefault clause, regardless of whether the value of that clause's expression matches. This behavior is called "fall-through".

const foo = 0;switch (foo) {  case -1:    console.log("negative 1");    break;  case 0: // Value of foo matches this criteria; execution starts from here    console.log(0);  // Forgotten break! Execution falls through  case 1: // no break statement in 'case 0:' so this case will run as well    console.log(1);    break; // Break encountered; will not continue into 'case 2:'  case 2:    console.log(2);    break;  default:    console.log("default");}// Logs 0 and 1

In the appropriate context, other control-flow statements also have the effect of breaking out of theswitch statement. For example, if theswitch statement is contained in a function, then areturn statement terminates the execution of the function body and therefore theswitch statement. If theswitch statement is contained in a loop, then acontinue statement stops theswitch statement and jumps to the next iteration of the loop.

Lexical scoping

Thecase anddefault clauses are likelabels: they indicate possible places that control flow may jump to. However, they don't create lexicalscopes themselves (neither do they automatically break out — as demonstrated above). For example:

const action = "say_hello";switch (action) {  case "say_hello":    const message = "hello";    console.log(message);    break;  case "say_hi":    const message = "hi";    console.log(message);    break;  default:    console.log("Empty action received.");}

This example will output the error "Uncaught SyntaxError: Identifier 'message' has already been declared", because the firstconst message = 'hello'; conflicts with the secondconst message = 'hi'; declaration, even when they're within their own separate case clauses. Ultimately, this is due to bothconst declarations being within the same block scope created by theswitch body.

To fix this, whenever you need to uselet orconst declarations in acase clause, wrap it in a block.

const action = "say_hello";switch (action) {  case "say_hello": {    const message = "hello";    console.log(message);    break;  }  case "say_hi": {    const message = "hi";    console.log(message);    break;  }  default: {    console.log("Empty action received.");  }}

This code will now outputhello in the console as it should, without any errors.

Examples

Using switch

In the following example, ifexpr evaluates toBananas, the program matches the value with casecase 'Bananas' and executes the associated statement. Whenbreak is encountered, the program breaks out ofswitch and executes the statement followingswitch. Ifbreak were omitted, the statement for thecase 'Cherries' would also be executed.

switch (expr) {  case "Oranges":    console.log("Oranges are $0.59 a pound.");    break;  case "Apples":    console.log("Apples are $0.32 a pound.");    break;  case "Bananas":    console.log("Bananas are $0.48 a pound.");    break;  case "Cherries":    console.log("Cherries are $3.00 a pound.");    break;  case "Mangoes":  case "Papayas":    console.log("Mangoes and papayas are $2.79 a pound.");    break;  default:    console.log(`Sorry, we are out of ${expr}.`);}console.log("Is there anything else you'd like?");

Putting the default clause between two case clauses

If no match is found, execution will start from thedefault clause, and execute all statements after that.

const foo = 5;switch (foo) {  case 2:    console.log(2);    break; // it encounters this break so will not continue into 'default:'  default:    console.log("default");  // fall-through  case 1:    console.log("1");}

It also works when you putdefault before all othercase clauses.

Taking advantage of fall-through

This method takes advantage of the fact that if there is nobreak below acase clause, execution will continue to the nextcase clause regardless if thatcase meets the criteria.

The following is an example of a single operation sequentialcase statement, where four different values perform exactly the same.

const Animal = "Giraffe";switch (Animal) {  case "Cow":  case "Giraffe":  case "Dog":  case "Pig":    console.log("This animal is not extinct.");    break;  case "Dinosaur":  default:    console.log("This animal is extinct.");}

The following is an example of a multiple-operation sequentialcase clause, where, depending on the provided integer, you can receive different output. This shows you that it will traverse in the order that you put thecase clauses, and it does not have to be numerically sequential. In JavaScript, you can even mix in definitions of strings into thesecase statements as well.

const foo = 1;let output = "Output: ";switch (foo) {  case 0:    output += "So ";  case 1:    output += "What ";    output += "Is ";  case 2:    output += "Your ";  case 3:    output += "Name";  case 4:    output += "?";    console.log(output);    break;  case 5:    output += "!";    console.log(output);    break;  default:    console.log("Please pick a number from 0 to 5!");}

The output from this example:

An alternative to if...else chains

You may often find yourself doing a series ofif...else matches.

if ("fetch" in globalThis) {  // Fetch a resource with fetch} else if ("XMLHttpRequest" in globalThis) {  // Fetch a resource with XMLHttpRequest} else {  // Fetch a resource with some custom AJAX logic}

This pattern is not doing a sequence of=== comparisons, but you can still convert it to aswitch construct.

switch (true) {  case "fetch" in globalThis:    // Fetch a resource with fetch    break;  case "XMLHttpRequest" in globalThis:    // Fetch a resource with XMLHttpRequest    break;  default:    // Fetch a resource with some custom AJAX logic    break;}

Theswitch (true) pattern as an alternative toif...else is especially useful if you want to utilize the fall-through behavior.

switch (true) {  case isSquare(shape):    console.log("This shape is a square.");  // Fall-through, since a square is a rectangle as well!  case isRectangle(shape):    console.log("This shape is a rectangle.");  case isQuadrilateral(shape):    console.log("This shape is a quadrilateral.");    break;  case isCircle(shape):    console.log("This shape is a circle.");    break;}

Specifications

Browser compatibility

See also

• if...else