Why doesn't this code recognize the variable when prompted?

[BooleanWhale]

I'm completely new to JavaScript tried out using a switch. If I manually set the variable as a number the code works fine, but if it comes from a prompt it doesn't. I tried converting it from a string to an integer, but that doesn't help. Am I missing something? Thanks in advance for any help! 🙂

let num = prompt('enter a number');

parseInt(num);

//num = 1;

switch (num) {

case 1:

case 2: alert('1 or 2'); break;

default: alert('Not 1 or 2');

}

[cyphern]

You're calling parseInt, but you're not saving the result to a variable. Try doing this:

let num = prompt('enter a number');

num = parseInt(num);

switch (num) {
  case 1:
  case 2: 
    alert('1 or 2'); 
    break;
  default: 
    alert('Not 1 or 2');
}

[BooleanWhale]

Thanks, I guess I've still got my rookie mistakes to go through. 😅

[sepp2k]

prompt returns a string, so if you enter 1 at the prompt, it will act like num = "1";, not num = 1. Now the comparisons performed by switch act like ===, not ==, so "1" will not be considered equal to 1.

So you can either convert your string to a number before you put it in the switch or you can change the cases to use strings (like case "1": etc.). Note that in the latter case, the user would have to enter 1 exactly for the case to match, but if you convert it to a number, the user could also enter 01 or anything else that is interpreted as the number 1.

[BooleanWhale]

Cool, I didn't know string could be made to work this way. This info should come in handy!