Select

Overview

The Select/Case activity combination (also known as Select/Case statement) runs one of several groups of statements, depending on the value of an expression. In a Select/Case statement, a single expression (most often a variable) is initially evaluated. The value of the expression is compared with the values for each Case in the structure. If there is a match, the block of steps associated with that Case is executed. Select/Case can be a useful alternative to using an If/Else statement in tasks that need to perform different actions for different decisions. The variation between Select/Case and If/Else is the speed and readability of the resulting task when one of several decisions can be reached. For example, evaluation of a simple expression such as 1=1 (true) or 1>2 (false) is best performed using use the If activity. For more complex decisions where there are several possible answers such as favorite color=red, blue, green, or yellow, Select/Case activities are a better choice. This is because Select/Case presents the task steps in a manner that is more readable and at runtime, the evaluation of the expression occurs only once rather than repeating If activities with individual comparison.

Available activities

For more information about a specific activity, click the associated link.

Activity	Description
Select - Begin case	Executes the steps following this step if the case matches the expression result of an enclosing Begin select step.
Select - Begin select	Executes the block of steps following the Begin case step matching the result of the specified expression.
Select - End case	Ends a block of steps started by a preceding Begin case activity.
Select - End select	Ends a block of steps started by a preceding Begin select activity.