# V2519. MISRA. Every 'switch' statement should have a 'default' label, which, in addition to the terminating 'break' statement, should contain either a statement or a comment.

This diagnostic rule is based on the software development guidelines developed by MISRA (Motor Industry Software Reliability Association).

This diagnostic rule is relevant only to C programs. Every 'switch' statement should contain a 'default' label.

Following this rule guarantees that any possible case where none of the labels matches the value of the control variable will be handled.

Since such situations have to be dealt with somehow, every 'default' label should contain (in addition to 'break') an expression or comment explaining why no actions are carried out.

Example 1:

    enum WEEK
    {
      SUNDAY, MONDAY, TUESDAY, WEDNESDAY, THURSDAY, FRIDAY, SATURDAY
    } weekDay;

    void example_1()
    {
      int isWorkday;

      switch (weekDay)
      {
      case MONDAY:
      case TUESDAY:
      case WEDNESDAY:
      case THURSDAY:
      case FRIDAY:
        isWorkday = 1;
        break;
      case SATURDAY:
      case SUNDAY:
        isWorkday = 0;
        break;
    }

Even though the 'weekDay' variable has been checked against every value of the 'WEEK' enumeration, it is not guaranteed to be limited only to these cases. To eliminate the warning, rewrite the code. For example:

    enum WEEK
    {
      SUNDAY, MONDAY, TUESDAY, WEDNESDAY, THURSDAY, FRIDAY, SATURDAY
    } weekDay;

    void example_1()
    {
      int isWorkday;

      switch (weekDay)
      {
      case MONDAY:
      case TUESDAY:
      case WEDNESDAY:
      case THURSDAY:
      case FRIDAY:
        isWorkday = 1;
        break;
      case SATURDAY:
      case SUNDAY:
        isWorkday = 0;
        break;
      default:
        assert(false);
        break;
    }

This diagnostic is classified as:

MISRA-C-2012-16.4 MISRA-C-2023-16.1 MISRA-C-2023-16.4