# What happens to Select Case \ ? **URL:** \ **Category:** General\ **Created:** [November 20, 2014, 9:22am UTC](https://forum.xojo.com/t/what-happens-to-select-case-string/20442 "2014-11-20T09:22:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Emile\_Schwarz](https://forum.xojo.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/e/90ced4/32.png) [@Emile\_Schwarz](https://forum.xojo.com/u/Emile_Schwarz)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2014, 9:22am UTC](https://forum.xojo.com/t/what-happens-to-select-case-string/20442/1 "2014-11-20T09:22:35Z")
I have: [code]Dim FirstName As String FirstName = “Emile” Select Case FirstName[/code] etc. and at run time I get: ```auto Type mismatch error. Expected String, but got boolean. ``` Why ? I quit Xojo and reload it to the same error. Xojo 2014r2.1 Os X 10.9.5 ---
**Author:** ![Roger\_Clary](https://forum.xojo.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/eada6e/32.png) [@Roger\_Clary](https://forum.xojo.com/u/Roger_Clary)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2014, 9:47am UTC](https://forum.xojo.com/t/what-happens-to-select-case-string/20442/2 "2014-11-20T09:47:02Z")
Looks ok so far. How do you compare your case statements? Do you “End” the Select Case block? ---
**Author:** ![Michel\_Bujardet](https://forum.xojo.com/user_avatar/forum.xojo.com/michel_bujardet/32/252_2.png) [@Michel\_Bujardet](https://forum.xojo.com/u/Michel_Bujardet)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2014, 9:59am UTC](https://forum.xojo.com/t/what-happens-to-select-case-string/20442/3 "2014-11-20T09:59:05Z")
[quote=144629:@Emile Schwarz]and at run time I get: Type mismatch error. Expected String, but got boolean. Why ? [/quote] You should post the entire code. I bet you did something like : `Dim FirstName As String FirstName = "Emile" Select Case FirstName case FirstName = "Emile" // This is a boolean` What you want to do is : `Dim FirstName As String FirstName = "Emile" Select Case FirstName case "Emile" ` ---
**Author:** ![Emile\_Schwarz](https://forum.xojo.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/e/90ced4/32.png) [@Emile\_Schwarz](https://forum.xojo.com/u/Emile_Schwarz)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2014, 11:28am UTC](https://forum.xojo.com/t/what-happens-to-select-case-string/20442/4 "2014-11-20T11:28:20Z")
> [@144638:@Roger Clary](#): > > Looks ok so far. How do you compare your case statements? Do you “End” the Select Case block? [code]Dim FirstName As String FirstName = “Emile” Select Case FirstName Case “Emile” // Do something Case “Albert” // Do something Case “Roger” // Do something Case Right(“Emile”,1) = “e” // Do something different Case InStr(FirstName,“S”) // Do something different Else // Not found End Select[/code] Sorry, I was thinking the shared code was enough since the error goes to `Select Case testExpression` Or… I may forgot to say something important. [Select Case](http://documentation.xojo.com/index.php/Select). OK: because both answers ask for more data, I tried some more tests and found working cases: Case “1” Case “August” Compiles. The following produce the error message Case FirstName = “Emile” Case Right(FirstName,1) = “e” OK (BIS): I now understand the error. In both cases above, the result of the evaluation is a Boolean ! Thanks, I got it. It was 5:30 (on a 24 Hours Clock) when I wrote that. I replaced the Select Case Block by an If … ElseIf… Block with many empty lines and it is as clear as a Select Case and works fine ! I wasted one hour on this simple… “error”. BTW: is the IDE report cautionable ? (it shows the error in the `Select Case` line instead of in the `Case` line(s)) PS: I checked on a C++ for Dummies book `switch(expression)` and found nothing except a ‘bug’ in the 2002 edition: they used in the example ‘cas’ instead of ‘case’. Certainly a translation error. ---
**Author:** ![Emile\_Schwarz](https://forum.xojo.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/e/90ced4/32.png) [@Emile\_Schwarz](https://forum.xojo.com/u/Emile_Schwarz)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2014, 11:30am UTC](https://forum.xojo.com/t/what-happens-to-select-case-string/20442/5 "2014-11-20T11:30:14Z")
Roger, Michel: Thank you for your answers. Roger says that Select Case works and Michel also ask for code; this leads me to “think different” and found where the error lies (my error). ---
**Author:** ![Jeremie\_L](https://forum.xojo.com/user_avatar/forum.xojo.com/jeremie_l/32/150_2.png) [@Jeremie\_L](https://forum.xojo.com/u/Jeremie_L)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2014, 12:35pm UTC](https://forum.xojo.com/t/what-happens-to-select-case-string/20442/6 "2014-11-20T12:35:35Z")
You could also write it as a combination of Select Case and If Then: [code]Dim FirstName As String FirstName = “Emile” Select Case FirstName Case “Emile” // Do something Case “Albert” // Do something Case “Roger” // Do something Else If Right(Firstname,1) = “e” // Do something different elseif InStr(FirstName,“S”)\>0 // Do something different Else // Not found End If End Select[/code] ---
**Author:** ![Emile\_Schwarz](https://forum.xojo.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/e/90ced4/32.png) [@Emile\_Schwarz](https://forum.xojo.com/u/Emile_Schwarz)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2014, 12:49pm UTC](https://forum.xojo.com/t/what-happens-to-select-case-string/20442/7 "2014-11-20T12:49:56Z")
Thank you Jrmie. ---
**Author:** ![Kem\_Tekinay](https://forum.xojo.com/user_avatar/forum.xojo.com/kem_tekinay/32/154_2.png) [@Kem\_Tekinay](https://forum.xojo.com/u/Kem_Tekinay)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2014, 1:01pm UTC](https://forum.xojo.com/t/what-happens-to-select-case-string/20442/8 "2014-11-20T13:01:25Z")
Another option: ```auto select case true case FirstName = "Emile" case FirstName.Right( 1 ) = "e" … ``` ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Duke](https://forum.xojo.com/user_avatar/forum.xojo.com/richard_duke/32/246_2.png) [@Richard\_Duke](https://forum.xojo.com/u/Richard_Duke)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2014, 1:28pm UTC](https://forum.xojo.com/t/what-happens-to-select-case-string/20442/9 "2014-11-20T13:28:58Z")
[quote=144664:@Kem Tekinay]Another option: ` select case true case FirstName = "Emile" case FirstName.Right( 1 ) = "e" … `[/quote] Kem, have no idea you can do that… ---
**Author:** ![Emile\_Schwarz](https://forum.xojo.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/e/90ced4/32.png) [@Emile\_Schwarz](https://forum.xojo.com/u/Emile_Schwarz)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2014, 9:52am UTC](https://forum.xojo.com/t/what-happens-to-select-case-string/20442/10 "2014-11-21T09:52:47Z")
Me too !!! Worst, it took me times to understand what I read: `Select Case True` My brain escaped True !!! Nota: I choosed `Select Case` because its reading is far better than an `If / End If` block… But after adding extra spaces in the `Select Case` converted to `If / End If` code, it happens that the new code is as readable as the previous one. Another question: do we know if there is a difference between these two ways of doing things ( `Select Case` vs `If / End If` ) in speed ? ---
**Author:** ![Jeremie\_L](https://forum.xojo.com/user_avatar/forum.xojo.com/jeremie_l/32/150_2.png) [@Jeremie\_L](https://forum.xojo.com/u/Jeremie_L)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2014, 12:11pm UTC](https://forum.xojo.com/t/what-happens-to-select-case-string/20442/11 "2014-11-21T12:11:23Z")
Regarding speed it depends actually. Select Case is quicker when you evaluate a function but If/End If is quicker if you evaluate a property. For example: `Function evaluateString(str As String) //Takes 100ms to evaluate Return str End Function ` `If evaluateString("toto") = "123" then //Do something Elseif evaluateString("toto") = "456" //Do something else End If` ```auto Select Case evaluateString("toto") Case "123" //Do something Case "345" //Do something else End Case ``` Select Case is quicker because it calls evaluateString only once. ---
**Author:** ![Emile\_Schwarz](https://forum.xojo.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/e/90ced4/32.png) [@Emile\_Schwarz](https://forum.xojo.com/u/Emile_Schwarz)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2014, 12:30pm UTC](https://forum.xojo.com/t/what-happens-to-select-case-string/20442/12 "2014-11-21T12:30:44Z")
Good point. ---
**Author:** ![Oliver\_Scott-Brown](https://forum.xojo.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/o/8baadc/32.png) [@Oliver\_Scott-Brown](https://forum.xojo.com/u/Oliver_Scott-Brown)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2014, 1:37pm UTC](https://forum.xojo.com/t/what-happens-to-select-case-string/20442/13 "2014-11-23T13:37:16Z")
[quote=144865:@JrmieLeroy]Regarding speed it depends actually. Select Case is quicker when you evaluate a function but If/End If is quicker if you evaluate a property. For example: `Function evaluateString(str As String) //Takes 100ms to evaluate Return str End Function ` `If evaluateString("toto") = "123" then //Do something Elseif evaluateString("toto") = "456" //Do something else End If` ```auto Select Case evaluateString("toto") Case "123" //Do something Case "345" //Do something else End Case ``` Select Case is quicker because it calls evaluateString only once.[/quote] But you could store the value of evaluateString in a variable, which would mean that you only have to call it once. ‘select case’ vs ‘if … else’ has an innegligible difference in speed when running. Choosing between the two should depend on how easy the code is to read and write. ---
**Author:** ![Oliver\_Scott-Brown](https://forum.xojo.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/o/8baadc/32.png) [@Oliver\_Scott-Brown](https://forum.xojo.com/u/Oliver_Scott-Brown)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2014, 1:40pm UTC](https://forum.xojo.com/t/what-happens-to-select-case-string/20442/14 "2014-11-23T13:40:27Z")
```auto If evaluateString("toto") = "123" then //Do something Elseif evaluateString("toto") = "456" then //Do something else End If ``` If it is worth the optimization I would personally write the code like this: ```auto dim evaluateStringToTo as string = evaluateString("toto") If evaluateStringToTo= "123" then //Do something Elseif evaluateStringToTo = "456" then //Do something else End If ``` ---
**Author:** ![Emile\_Schwarz](https://forum.xojo.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/e/90ced4/32.png) [@Emile\_Schwarz](https://forum.xojo.com/u/Emile_Schwarz)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2014, 2:07pm UTC](https://forum.xojo.com/t/what-happens-to-select-case-string/20442/15 "2014-11-23T14:07:50Z")
> [@145302:@Oliver Scott-Brown](#): > > how easy the code is to read and write. Adding empty lines before each and every ElseIf / Else add clarity / readability to the whole if block and that is what I was searching initially / why I choosed Select Case. Then, I was wrong in my logic ☹ ---
**Author:** ![system](https://forum.xojo.com/uploads/default/original/1X/455b4dcc0e61630e9f81940004ddffa49c432a46.png) [@system](https://forum.xojo.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2020, 5:29pm UTC](https://forum.xojo.com/t/what-happens-to-select-case-string/20442/16 "2020-10-29T17:29:50Z")