What is the difference between Go's if-else and switch statements?
In Go, both the if-else and switch statements are used for conditional branching in a program, but they differ in their syntax and usage.
The **if-else**
statement is used to execute a block of code if a given condition is true, and execute another block of code if the condition is false. The syntax of an **if-else**
statement is as follows:
if condition {
// code to execute if condition is true
} else {
// code to execute if condition is false
}
Here, **condition**
is any expression that can be evaluated to a boolean value (**true**
or **false**
). If **condition**
is true, the code block inside the **if**
statement is executed, otherwise the code block inside the **else**
statement is executed.
The **switch**
statement, on the other hand, is used to evaluate a given expression against multiple possible values, and execute different blocks of code depending on which value matches. The syntax of a **switch**
statement is as follows:
switch expression {
case value1:
// code to execute if expression == value1
case value2:
// code to execute if expression == value2
default:
// code to execute if expression does not match any case
}
Here, **expression**
is any expression that can be evaluated to a value that can be compared to the **value1**
, **value2**
, etc. Each **case**
represents a possible value that **expression**
can take, and the code block inside the **case**
is executed if **expression**
matches the corresponding value. The **default**
case is executed if **expression**
does not match any of the **case**
values.
In contrast to **if-else**
, which allows for any boolean expression as a condition, **switch**
statements can only be used with expressions that evaluate to values of a fixed set of types: integers, floating-point numbers, strings, characters, and booleans. Additionally, **switch**
statements are often more concise and readable than long chains of **if-else**
statements, especially when there are many possible values to check against.
In summary, **if-else**
statements are used for simple conditional branching based on a boolean expression, while **switch**
statements are used for more complex branching based on a given expression that can take on multiple values.