Doubt in Master Exam question

[Ankit Garg]

One of the question in the master exam says this

If a switch block has no default, adding an assert default is considered appropriate.

But how can this be true. I know that some of you will say that this example is just to prove the question wrong, but I actually had this code in my program when I was developing a game. It was a quiz based game which used to come on TV in USA as "Who wants to be a Billionaire" and in India as "Kaun Banega Crorepati", on the basis of the current question number, I had to print dots on the money tree on the question which were already answered. So I had this code

switch(questionNumber)
{
  case 15:
     //display dot at question number 15
  case 14:
     //display dot at question number 14
   :
   :
  case 1:
     //display dot at question number 1
}

If I add assert as default here, my code will always generate an AssertionError. Then I would have to add the dafault as the first case or add break after the last case. But why would I do that??? My code is running fine in this condition. So adding assert is increasing complexity and I would consider it inappropriate....

[vidhya suvarna]

I think, the statement meant that when we are sure that under any case our program would not enter the default case, then placing assert there is a good practice.

If a switch block has no default case, adding an assert is considered appropriate.

means
default:
assert false;

I am not sure but thats how i took it when going to Assertion chapter. Correct me if i am wrong.
[ September 28, 2008: Message edited by: vidhya suvarna ]

[Venkata Saraswathi]

Default case is used with assertion in the following scenario.

In a test suppose max number of questions are 10. Suppose in some exceptional scenario if input questionNumber > 10 then to know why none of question was selected we can use assertions (using simple assertions we get question number passed to switch statement also).

--
Venkata.
[ September 28, 2008: Message edited by: Venkata ]

[Santhi Bharath]

you should have added the break statement for every case to run fine.adding assertion in default case is good practice because then only we can assure that no wrong values for question numbers.

[sannuth kashikar]

Assertions are used during testing.These statements are not executed during normal execution of program, as assert are disabled by default.Using assert in switch statement means that as per assumptions your are not suppose to reach the default.assertions are used to check your assumptions or the logic you have applied to your code.They are executed when they are enabled.