in reply to Re^5: fall through switch/case in perl
in thread fall through switch/case in perl

s/==/>=/g and it falls through ie 
for ( $var ) {
    $_ >= 10 and print "a";
    $_ >=  9 and print "b";
    $_ >=  8 and print "c";
    $_ >=  7 and print "d";
    $_ >=  6 and print "e";
    $_ >=  5 and print "f";
    $_ >=  4 and print "g";
    $_ >=  3 and print "h";
    $_ >=  2 and print "i";
    $_ >=  1 and print "j";
}

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cheers

tachyon

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Re^7: fall through switch/case in perl
by Rhys (Pilgrim) on Sep 07, 2004 at 11:47 UTC
    While Aristotle posted a solution that more closely approximates the switch/case behavior, but - aside from the additional tests - isn't yours the better way to do it in Perl (meaning that it's a hell of a lot more readable as the number of cases grows)?

    Or what about: 

    $accum = '';
for ( $var ) {
 if ( $_ <  1 ) {  last;  } else { $accum = 'j'.$accum; }
 if ( $_ <  2 ) {  last;  } else { $accum = 'i'.$accum; }
 if ( $_ <  3 ) {  last;  } else { $accum = 'h'.$accum; }
 if ( $_ <  4 ) {  last;  } else { $accum = 'g'.$accum; }
 if ( $_ <  5 ) {  last;  } else { $accum = 'f'.$accum; }
 if ( $_ <  6 ) {  last;  } else { $accum = 'e'.$accum; }
 if ( $_ <  7 ) {  last;  } else { $accum = 'd'.$accum; }
 if ( $_ <  8 ) {  last;  } else { $accum = 'c'.$accum; }
 if ( $_ <  9 ) {  last;  } else { $accum = 'b'.$accum; }
 $accum = 'a'.$accum;
}

    [download]
    Wouldn't that be similar, but provide a shortcut out (so we don't always run ten tests)? Also, push-ing onto an array and join-ing it at the end might be a little more flexible than the . operator...

    Just musing (as usual)...

    --J

    Update: The examples using goto further down are even faster (fewer tests) and preserve the fallthrough and the ability to execute arbitrary code in each case (rather than literally doing string manipulation), but you get an earful from purists when you use goto. :-)

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      Personally I think that given perl has for, foreach, do, while, until, map, grep and all sorts of other operators that the case statement should have been part of the language from the start. You don't *need* it. In fact you don't need for or while or.... All you really need is goto and if which is how it gets implmented in assembler anyway, but that is hardly the point....

      cheers

      tachyon

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        If you look at the wishlist of perl-1.0.0, you'll notice that it mentions switch. So, Larry thought, at least at the start, so too.
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Re^7: fall through switch/case in perl
by Aristotle (Chancellor) on Sep 07, 2004 at 01:04 UTC

    Yes, but that's not equivalent to the OP's code.

    Makeshifts last the longest.

[reply]

      As you say, it is not equivalent. To do that you need some extra checks at the top of the 'loop' ie 

        last unless /^\d+$/ and $_ <= 10;

      [download]

      It is almost certainly a silly way to do it in Perl anyway. It is even a rather suboptimal way to do it in C..... 

      for(i=0;i<var;i++) printf( "%c", 97+i ); /* C or perl */

print map chr,97..96+$var;

      [download]

      cheers

      tachyon

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        I don't mean the extra checks. I mean it doesn't preserve the semantics. Imagine if the OP's code didn't have the conditions in a strictly monotonic increasing or decreasing sequence, but in some completely random order. You couldn't emulate that simply by fiddling the conditions a little — you'd have to build a construct that's actually equivalent.

        Makeshifts last the longest.

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