Switch.luau

Switch.luau is a switch implementation in pure luau.

Why use a switch statement over an if-statement?

Switch statements are present in many other languages including C++ and Javascript. Switch statements overall make your code more readable rather than if statements.

With switch statements:

local a = 10 -- this here is the variable we will be checking

local conditional = switch.new(a) -- create our switch statement

conditional.Case(468, "==", function() -- this is like an if statement
    print("Hello world")
end)

conditional:Case(11, "==" ,function() -- another if statement
    print("11")
end)

conditional.Default(function() -- and this is like an else statement
    print("Default")
end)

Output: Default

Without switch statements

local a = 10 -- this is the variable we will be checking

if a == 468 then
    print("Hello world")
elseif a == 11 then
    print("11")
else
    print("Default")
end

Output: Default

Conclusion

Ultimately, switch statements are more readable. Especially if you have a lot of nested if-statements in your code. Switch statements allow us to space out our cases as much as we want. They also make it easier to remove a condition.

Switch statements are also more diverse. You can switch it up and define your default function before your cases; or, you can define a default in between two cases.

Installation

Via Github Releases

You can install the switch module via github releases by downloading the .lua file under the latest release.

Via Wally

You can also use wally to install the switch module by inserting: switch = "veternitzz/[email protected]" into your wally config file.

Note: No wally releases before 1.0.4 are stable, as I had a little bit of an issue publishing this module.

Api Reference

Constructors

switch.new(): metatable

Parameters

Parameter Name	Type	Description
variable	any	The variable to check

Methods (switch.new)

Switch:Debug(): nil

Description Enables or disabled debug logging. This function was only designed for debugging and will print when a case or default is registered.

Parameters

Parameter Name	Type	Description
enabled	boolean	Whether to enable or disable debug logging

Switch:Case(): nil

Description Registers a case if the value is met and calls the parameter func. There is no limit to how many cases you can have.

Parameters

Parameter Name	Type	Description
value	any	The value to compare the variable to
operation	"~="	"=="
func	any (must be a function)	The function to call if the value is met

Usage Example

local a = 47

local conditional = switch.new(a)

-- Because the operation is ~= (not equal to), the output will be "Hello world"
conditional:Case(46, "~=", function()
    print("Hello world")
end)

Switch:Default(): nil

Description The default case. This acts as an else statement and will call the func parameter if no cases are met. There may be only one registered default case per constructor.

Parameters

Parameter Name	Type	Description
func	any (must be a function)	The function to call if the value is met

Usage Example

local a = 57

local conditional = switch.new(a)

conditional:Case(56, "==", function()
    print("56")
end)

-- The output will be: "Default"
conditional:Default(function()
    print("Default")
end)