[ACCEPTED]-default as first option in switch statement?-switch-statement

It is an unusual idiom, it causes a little 4 pause when you're reading it, a moment of 3 "huh?". It works, but most people would 2 probably expect to find the default case 1 at the end:

switch($kind)
{
    case 'kind2':
        // do some stuff for kind2 here
        break;

    // [...]

    case 'kindn':
        // do some stuff for kindn here
        break;

    case 'kind1':
    default: 
        // Assume kind1
        $kind = 'kind1';

        break;

}

In case anybody find this page through google 12 as I did:

I was wondering the same thing 11 as Josh - so... One thing is standards, which 10 I think we should all try harder to adhere 9 too, but another thing is hacking (in the: exploit-every-possibility 8 kinda way).

While it's ugly/weird/not normal 7 - it IS possible and IMHO could be useful 6 in some rare cases...

Consider the following:

$color = "greenish";
//$color = "green";

switch($color) {
    default:
        echo "no colors were selected so the color is: ";
    case "red":
        echo "red<br />\n";
        break;
    case "blue":
        echo "blue<br />\n";
        break;
    case "green":
        echo "green<br />\n";
        break;
}

If 5 $color = "greenish"; the code will print

no colors were selected 4 so the color is red

while if $color = "green"; or any other 3 defined cases, it will just print the color.

It 2 know it not the best example, but you get 1 the point ;) Hope it helps somebody.

This is how I'd probably do it... it's easy 1 on the eye and keeps the functionality.

switch($kind)
{
    case 'kind1': default :
        // Do some stuff for kind 1 here
        break;
    case 'kind2':
        // do some stuff for kind2 here
        break;
    case 'kindn':
        // do some stuff for kindn here
        break;
}

It looks odd for the same reason that

else {
   echo "lol";
}
if (1 == 1) {
   echo "bbq";
}

would 6 look odd, if it were valid. If for this 5 reason alone I'd avoid it.

In addition, you 4 know that every time you show the code to somebody, you're 3 going to have to explain that putting the 2 default case first was deliberate; this is usually 1 a sign that it's not a great idea.

I'd personally prefer to do

switch($kind)
{
    case 'kind2':
        // do some stuff for kind2 here
        break;

    // [...]

    case 'kindn':
        // do some stuff for kindn here
        break;

    case 'kind1':
    default:
        $kind = 'kind1'; // Redundant if it's already set as 'kind1', but that doesn't make any difference to the code.
        // Do some stuff for kind 1 here
        break;

}

0

This can be really handy for flow control, particularly 5 if you aren't breaking between cases.

For 4 example:

$step = $_GET['skip_to_step'];
switch($step) {
    default:
    case 'step1':
        // do some stuff for step one
    case 'step2':
        // this follows on from step 1 or you can skip straight to it
}

You could add in an additional 'if', or 3 a clever 'or' to make $step default to 'step1' before 2 you start the switch but that's just extra 1 code, reducing readability.

Common practice is to define the default 4 option as last option. But I see nothing 3 wrong with your solution (if there is no 2 predefined schema in your company how to 1 layout your code)

Kind of made me twinge at first, but that's 8 just because we're not use to seeing things 7 that way.

I would suggest that you document 6 this highly, since some might call this 5 "tricky" code. A noob or some future maintainer 4 might come along and move it to the bottom 3 where they're more comfortable with it and 2 break the side-effect that is has being 1 at the top.

Other answers give good examples of it, just 31 stating for clarity's sake...

A Case (including 30 default) does not stop executing at its 29 end unless you include a break. Although 28 switch is often compared to a sequence of 27 if elseif elseif etc., however it's not 26 quite that.

Short version: SWITCH/CASE only acts like 25 IF/ELSEIF/ELSE if you include breaks after 24 each case. SWITCH/CASE is more like a series 23 of "if" statements where each has the same 22 variable check with a different value it's 21 being checked against.

Long version: Without including 20 a break, each case is a "start here"and 19 the differences in a lot of ways make it 18 closer to GOTO without the drawbacks. Technically, if 17 you really REALLY wanted to (read, were 16 a masochistic coder who wanted to really 15 challenge themselves) you could write almost 14 any procedural programs using only one external 13 array, a for loop, and a switch nested inside.

Seriously, why 12 you would want to do this boggles my mind, but 11 it really demonstrates how far switch/case 10 can deviate from if/elseif patterns, so 9 it's here for you for academic reasons (but 8 don't do it!)...

$array = [];
$array['masterLoop'] = 1;
$for ($i = 0, $i < $array['masterLoop'], $i++ ){
    switch($array['goto']){
        default: 
        case 1: 
            PRINT: "Welcome to the program";
        case 2: 
            PRINT: "Please make a choice:";
        case 3:
            $array['choice']='';
            // Wait for some input variable and set choice to it.
        case 4: 
            $array['goto']=$array['choice'];
            $array['masterLoop']++;
    }
}

The way this code would 7 run (after you set up something for capturing 6 and setting a choice) would be it'd start 5 up with

"Welcome to the program. Please make a choice."
<<user inputs 2>>
"Please make a choice."
<<user inputs 1>>
"Welcome to the program. Please make a choice."
<<user inputs 3>>
// program awaits user input
<<user inputs 4>>
// user triggers infinite loop

So... you can use switches to reflect 4 back to the days of BASIC... but if you 3 do and I have to debug your code later after 2 you wrote it all like that... May Linus 1 Torvalds mercy on your soul.