Java – Force passage from default switch statement

May 15, 2023

I have a switch where for particular cases I need to do some peculiar things but I still want them to pass through the default case of the switch statement because in there I have functionality that is common to all cases. How can I force the passage to the default case after I’ve handled the peculiar one?

Example:

    switch(someVar) {
        case "a":
            ....
            //do something peculiar for a 
            break;
        case "b":
            ...
            //do something peculiar for b
            break;
        default: 
            ...
            //common things that all cases should do
    }

EDIT: At the moment I’ve just copy-pasted the lines inside the default at the bottom of each peculiar case but that’s ugly.

>Solution :

If things must be executed unconditionally, they should be moved out of the condition:

switch(someVar) {
    case "a":
        ....
        //do something peculiar for a 
        break;
    case "b":
        ...
        //do something peculiar for b
        break;
}

//common things that all cases should do

Alternatively, extract a method:

switch(someVar) {
    case "a":
        ....
        //do something peculiar for a 
        doCommonThings();
        break;
    case "b":
        ...
        //do something peculiar for b
        doCommonThings();
        break;
}