but you cannot use switch in your example, because switch only compares const against a var and a string, hmm mora than a const (what does our friend mr Compiler will say) !?! :


switch(text){
case "this string rarely occurs":
...
case strcmp( ???/*text maybe ?*/, "this string rarely occurs"):
...
}

dont know what the compiler will say, but i know it wont work

but switch is only in some cases faster, look at this example, where switch will loose:


switch(num){
case 0:
case 1:
case 2:
...
case 65534:
case 65535:
}


and now the same thing with if (you get some 15/16 if calls before you get to your final destination and by the switch 1 to 65536):


if(num > 32536){
if(num > 48123){
...
}
else{
...
}
}
else{
...
}


please finish the codefragments (macros etc are not allowed)
compared with few if/else statements switch will be faster, because there are 1 or 2 instructions less per if;

T2k

if you really wanna optimize it, use a hash table for your error strings.