How to Force Passage from Default Switch Statement

Have you ever encountered a situation where you needed to perform some peculiar tasks within specific cases of a switch statement, but still wanted those cases to pass through the default case? This can be a tricky scenario, but there are ways to achieve it without resorting to messy code duplication.

Let’s take a look at an example to illustrate the problem:

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switch(someVar) {
    case "a":
        // Perform peculiar tasks for case "a"
        break;
    case "b":
        // Perform peculiar tasks for case "b"
        break;
    default:
        // Perform common tasks for all cases
}

In the above code, the default case contains functionality that should be executed for all cases. However, for specific cases, you need to handle some peculiar tasks before reaching the default case. So how can you force the passage to the default case after handling those peculiar tasks?

One approach is to extract the common functionality outside the switch statement. This ensures that the common tasks are executed regardless of the case:

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switch(someVar) {
    case "a":
        // Perform peculiar tasks for case "a"
        break;
    case "b":
        // Perform peculiar tasks for case "b"
        break;
}

// Perform common tasks for all cases

By moving the common tasks outside the switch statement, you guarantee their execution for all cases, including the peculiar ones.

Another option is to extract a method that contains the common tasks and invoke it from each peculiar case. This approach keeps the common functionality encapsulated and avoids code duplication:

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switch(someVar) {
    case "a":
        // Perform peculiar tasks for case "a"
        doCommonTasks();
        break;
    case "b":
        // Perform peculiar tasks for case "b"
        doCommonTasks();
        break;
}

// Common tasks for all cases
private void doCommonTasks() {
    // Perform common tasks here
}

By extracting a method, doCommonTasks(), you can easily invoke it from each peculiar case, ensuring that the common tasks are executed.

It’s important to note that if a functionality is truly common to all cases, it might be a sign that it shouldn’t be within the switch-case structure in the first place. Consider moving such functionality outside the switch statement to improve code clarity and maintainability.