Is there no switch function in Python

Jaime Wyant programmer.py at gmail.com
Fri Sep 10 11:24:56 EDT 2004


Don't blame c++.  This is a relic of 'C'.

http://catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/D/Duffs-device.html



On Fri, 10 Sep 2004 11:16:12 -0400, Roy Smith <roy at panix.com> wrote:
> Isaac To <iketo2 at netscape.net> wrote:
> > C switch is much more flexible than one would expect.  It is not just
> > a cheap replacement of a sequence of if-then-else.  E.g., in an
> > exercise of "The C++ Programming Language" of Bjarne Stroustrup, you
> > can see the following example code:
> >
> >   void send(int *to, int *from, int count) {
> >     int n = (count + 7) / 8;
> >     switch (count % 8) {
> >     case 0: do { *to++ = *from++;
> >     case 7:      *to++ = *from++;
> >     case 6:      *to++ = *from++;
> >     case 5:      *to++ = *from++;
> >     case 4:      *to++ = *from++;
> >     case 3:      *to++ = *from++;
> >     case 2:      *to++ = *from++;
> >     case 1:      *to++ = *from++;
> >       } while (--n > 0);
> >     }
> >   }
> 
> La-de-dah, Bjarne discovers loop unrolling.  You don't need a switch
> statement to unroll loops.
> 
> Hold on a second.  Cases 1 through 7 jump into the middle of the do
> loop!?  Pardon me while I barf.  I didn't even know that was legal.
> That's the kind of code that gives C++ a bad name.
> 
> 
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>



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