C++: alternative to switch using wstring

Question

Is there any alternative to use switch using a wstring in C++? In Java it's no problem - switch accepts String.

Answer 1

In C++ you can only switch on integral types. That's by design and to be able to switch on strings would complicate (or break) the language.

There are flashy alternatives such as creating maps of strings to numbers and switching on the latter, but they only obfuscate.

Don't fight the language. Just use if, else if and else.

Answer 2

If you have only a few cases, then go with if-else blocks.

With more than 5 cases, i'd use a std::unordered_map (#include <unorered_map> or #include <tr1/unordered_map>) with std::wstring as keys and std::function as value (this way you can use lambda if you don't want to write lone functions).