Java Switch Incompatible Types Boolean Int

Question

I have the following class:

public class NewGameContract {

public boolean HomeNewGame = false;

public boolean AwayNewGame = false;

public boolean GameContract(){

    if (HomeNewGame && AwayNewGame){
        return true;
    } else {
        return false;
    }
}
}

When I try to use it like so:

            if (networkConnection){

            connect4GameModel.newGameContract.HomeNewGame = true;

            boolean status = connect4GameModel.newGameContract.GameContract();

            switch (status){

                case true:
                    break;

                case false:
                    break;
            }
            return;
        }

I am getting the error:

incompatible types found: boolean required: int on the following
`switch (status)` code.

What am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

you don't want to switch on a boolean, just use a simple if/else

if (status) {
  ....
} else {
  ....
}

edit : switch is only used for ints, chars, or enums (i think that's all, maybe there are others?) edit edit : it seems short and byte are also valid types for switching, as well as the boxed versions of all of these (Integer, Short, etc etc)

Answer 2

Can't use boolean in switch, only int. Please read the Java docs for the switch statement.

Answer 3

In Java, switch only works for byte, short, char, int and enum. For booleans you should use if/else as there are a very limited number of states.

Answer 4

You can't switch on a boolean (which only have 2 values anyway):

The Java Language Specification clearly specifies what type of expression can be switch-ed on.

JLS 14.11 The switch statement

SwitchStatement:
    switch ( Expression ) SwitchBlock

The type of the Expression must be char, byte, short, int, Character, Byte, Short, Integer, or an enum type, or a compile-time error occurs.

It is a lot more readable and concise to simply use an if statement to distinguish the two cases of boolean.

Answer 5

Switch takes an integer value, and a boolean cannot be converted to an integer.

In java, a boolean is a type in its own right, and not implicitly convertible to any other type (except Boolean).