Case vs If Else If: Which is more efficient? [duplicate]

Solution 1:

It seems that the compiler is better in optimizing a switch-statement than an if-statement.

The compiler doesn't know if the order of evaluating the if-statements is important to you, and can't perform any optimizations there. You could be calling methods in the if-statements, influencing variables. With the switch-statement it knows that all clauses can be evaluated at the same time and can put them in whatever order is most efficient.

Here's a small comparison:
http://www.blackwasp.co.uk/SpeedTestIfElseSwitch.aspx

Solution 2:

The debugger is making it simpler, because you don't want to step through the actual code that the compiler creates.

If the switch contains more than five items, it's implemented using a lookup table or hash table, otherwise it's implemeneted using an if..else.

See the closely related question is “else if” faster than “switch() case” ?.

Other languages than C# will of course implement it more or less differently, but a switch is generally more efficient.

Solution 3:

Many programming language optimize the switch statement so that it is much faster than a standard if-else if structure provided the cases are compiler constants. Many languages use a jump table or indexed branch table to optimize switch statements. Wikipedia has a good discussion of the switch statement. Also, here is a discussion of switch optimization in C.

One thing to note is that switch statements can be abused and, depending on the case, it may be preferable to use polymorphism instead of switch statements. See here for an example.