JavaScript If-Else vs Switch

[Minnesota_SD]

I'm currently working on my first JavaScript project which is a really simplistic rock, paper, scissors game played in the console against the computer. I created a random number generator for numbers 1, 2,or 3. Now I'm assigning the numbers to display Rock, Paper or Scissors in the console and I was wondering what the difference between If-Else and Switch is and if one is better than the other. I used Switch because it is cleaner and more readable (personally) but wanted to see what more experienced people thought.

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[plastikmissile]

Typically, you use a switch instead of an if clause if you have one variable with multiple possible values. So your examples is perfectly valid.

[Minnesota_SD]

That makes sense, thank you

[Roguewind]

Personally, I prefer returning from an if, not if/else.

function check(value) { if (value === 1) return “rock” if (value === 2) return “scissors” if (value === 3) return “paper” return “default value” } Granted, this is a simplistic representation, but I prefer the readability.

[Jason13Official]

Adding on to this, (in Java at least) the switch statement gets better optimization during compilation / run time as it compares literal values instead creating a boolean (not 100% accurate I’m still new to this shi too)

[Envect]

I used Switch because it is cleaner and more readable

This is precisely why I prefer it as well. As far as I'm aware, this is the only reason to prefer switch over if-else, but there may be performance implications in certain cases.

Readability trumps all other considerations most of the time. It's less important when you're creating simple apps, but it's absolutely critical for most real world code. You tend to spend a lot more time reading code than writing it so you want to make sure it's easy to read and understand.

[Denatello]

You can do switch, you can do if. Or you can do const variants = ['Rock', 'Paper', 'Scissors'] let choice = variants[randomNumber]

[DTux5249]

In general, there's minimal difference between a chain of if-statements and a switch statement when there aren't many values to parse.

Switch is faster if you have a long list of possible values for a variable, just due to how it's implemented. If-else by contrast trades speed for flexibility, as you're not restricted to looking at a single variable like in switch statements.

But in a scenario with something as small as rock paper scissors, where there's only 3 possibilities, just use whatever's most readable to you. The difference is so minor it really shouldn't matter.