CString in switch??

[David J. Zook]

I want to use a CString variable in a switch statement, with simples strings
as case labels.

For example:
switch (CStringInputMonth)
{case "JAN":
intMonth = 1;
break;
case "Feb"
intMonth =2;
break;
....
};

VC++ 6.0 will not accept the CString in the switch, and says that "JAN" is
not a constant value.

Any suggestions will be appreciated

TIA

[Frank Le]

Why not simply use if-else?

Frank

"David J. Zook" <dave...@my-deja.com> wrote in message
news:OVl0MZui$GA....@cppssbbsa02.microsoft.com...

[John Smith]

It's my understanding that only enumarated types (int, enum) can be used in
switch statement.

[David J. Zook]

I ended using if ... then ... else ... if ..., which is not too bad for
month names, but is terrible for strings that are app-specific. Maintenance
programmers are required to redevelop the logic from what is very nearly
spaghetti code.

I will have to get used to "else if" again.

Thanks for the idea though.

"Frank Le" <NOSPAM...@programmer.net> wrote in message
news:#7n7Ctui$GA....@cppssbbsa02.microsoft.com...

> Why not simply use if-else?
>
> Frank
>

[Oleg Musteata]

You can only switch by simple, "ordered" types, such as int or char. And
that's with any c++ compiler. You can switch on a string in JavaScript1.3,
for e.g.

In your particular situation, it appears that the possible values of your
CStringInputMonth are all uppercase and are all 3 letters long. Then you can
do this:

//I use lowercase, but it's irrespective.
CString AllMonths(".jan.feb.mar.apr.may"); ///all months; each
one starts at an index divisable by 4.
int iMonth = AllMonths.Find("."+stMonth); ///position of the
month in the AllMonths string.
iMonth = iMonth / 4+1; ///obtain the
actual month index.

That's it. Or just

int iMonth = AllMonths.Find("."+stMonth")/4 + 1;

and you'll only have 2 lines of code, instead of 3 * 12. You can remove the
"." from AllMonths and the call to Find(), and then replace the 4 with a 3.
AllMonths becomes "janfebmaraprmay...". The dot would be useful if "anf" was
a month of it's own, for e.g.

[John Fisher]

David,
In the past, I've used the following to make things more readable than the "else
if" structure string comparisons require.

The defines:
// An attempt to duplicate the switch/case statements for use with non-integral
times.
#define STR_SWITCH(x) {CString switchval(x); if (false) {;} // Semicolon is
necessary
#define CASE(y) else if (switchval == y) {;
#define DEFAULT else if (true) {;
#define BREAK }
#define END_SWITCH }

An example:
STR_SWITCH(sName)
CASE(_T("John"))
// code
BREAK
CASE(_T("Bob"))
// code
BREAK
CASE(_T("George"))
// code
BREAK
CASE(_T("Fred"))
// code
BREAK
CASE(_T("Harry"))
// code
BREAK
DEFAULT
return -1;
BREAK
END_SWITCH;

John