Legal arguments in switch case statements

[meena]

can someone tell me why this code won't compile
final int a =1;
final int b;
b=2;
int x=0;
switch(x) {
case a;
case b; -------compiler error
the book says that case b; this line will give compiler error.
Why is that?
will b=2 not happen at compile time? My understanding was that primitives get their values at compile time and objects at run time..
Please help

[atiqur rahman]

simple rule for switch case:
you can only use constant or final variable as case argument.

[Deb Sadhukhan]

atiqur,
b is a final variable

[heyagosper]

I think the answer can be summed up as follows:
a) switch statements, along with their case clauses, are evaluated at compile time.
b) constant expressions such as final variables are evaluated at compile time (so a declaration like "final int b = 2;" makes the constant value of b available to the compiled switch code)
c) assignments that are NOT made when a constant is declared (ie, in the same statement, as above) are made at run-time. So a statement like "final int b; b = 2;" does not expose the value of b to the compiled switch code.
I'm not sure why the compiler doesn't complain about an uninitialised variable in this case... for example:
case a: statement;
case b: x = b;
//No uninitialized variable error, just the constant required error.
I think it is because the precompiler checks for a constant value referenced by b before compiling the rest of the code.

Hope that helps.

[Dirk Schreckmann]

men man and heyagosper,
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