New Java 7 Features: Using String in the Switch Statement

In Java SE 7 and later, you can use a String object in the switch statement's expression. The following code example, StringSwitchDemo, displays the number of the month based on the value of the String named month:

public class StringSwitchDemo {

 public static int getMonthNumber(String month) {

  int monthNumber = 0;

  if (month == null) {
   return monthNumber;
  }

  switch (month.toLowerCase()) {
  case "january":
   monthNumber = 1;
   break;
  case "february":
   monthNumber = 2;
   break;
  case "march":
   monthNumber = 3;
   break;
  case "april":
   monthNumber = 4;
   break;
  case "may":
   monthNumber = 5;
   break;
  case "june":
   monthNumber = 6;
   break;
  case "july":
   monthNumber = 7;
   break;
  case "august":
   monthNumber = 8;
   break;
  case "september":
   monthNumber = 9;
   break;
  case "october":
   monthNumber = 10;
   break;
  case "november":
   monthNumber = 11;
   break;
  case "december":
   monthNumber = 12;
   break;
  default:
   monthNumber = 0;
   break;
  }

  return monthNumber;
 }

 public static void main(String[] args) {

  String month = "August";

  int returnedMonthNumber = StringSwitchDemo.getMonthNumber(month);
  System.out.println("The month number is:");
  if (returnedMonthNumber == 0) {
   System.out.println("Invalid month");
  } else {
   System.out.println(returnedMonthNumber);
  }
 }
}

The output is:


The month number is:
8