How do I compare multiple values against a single variable?

Question

Is there a shortcut for comparing multiple values such as in the following expression?

if (choice == "a" || choice == "b" || choice == "c") {do something;}

I thought about switch statements, but they only work for single values as far as I know.

And what about variable declaration or constants?

int initialValue = 1, finalValue = 1;

Does this answer your question: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/12911691/switch-multiple-values-in-one-case/12911729? — Iliar Turdushev, May 19 '20 at 08:51
@IliarTurdushev and what about if those values are not numerical? — , May 19 '20 at 08:54
@IliarTurdushev and also, when they have a range of values, they must write it like this `age > 9 && age < 15` rather than just simply having `9 < age < 15` which in my opinion, is much more readable. — , May 19 '20 at 09:01
@JohnathanBarclay what about a range of values? Probably not good practice to write them one by one. Could I rewrite this `age > 9 && age < 15` as something like this `9 < age < 15` which is much more readable in my opinion. — , May 19 '20 at 09:03

Prasad Telkikar · Answer 1 · 2020-05-19T09:27:24.683

1

You can try Any()

public static string[] array = new string[] {"a", "b", "c"};
if(array.Any(x => x == choice))
{
   //Your business logic
}

Or you can try Any() with .Contains,

if(array.Any(choice.Contains))
{
   //Your business logic
}

You can use HashSet<T> to store distinct elements and use .Contains() to figure out choice is available in hashet or not

public static HashSet<string> array = new HashSet<string>(){"a", "b", "c"};
if(array.Contains(choice))
{
   Console.WriteLine("Implement your business logic");
}

.Net Fiddle

edited May 19 '20 at 09:27

answered May 19 '20 at 08:51

Prasad Telkikar

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`Contains()` would be more concise. – Johnathan Barclay May 19 '20 at 08:59
Consider a `HashSet` and `Contains`. – mjwills May 19 '20 at 08:59
1

@DavidMcNeil, Think about future if you want to extend this if condition then in your approach you need to add one more or condition, but in my solution we need to add just one record to the static array – Prasad Telkikar May 19 '20 at 09:55

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered May 19 '20 at 08:53

0

You can stack the case statements in order to map multiple values to the same action:

switch(choice)
{
  case "a":
  case "b":
  case "c":
    // Do something
    break;

  default:
    // Do something else
    break;
}

answered May 19 '20 at 08:53

Sean

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I guess, this would work for this case, but what about a range of numbers or more values? – May 19 '20 at 09:05

How do I compare multiple values against a single variable?

2 Answers2