TIOBE - C Coding Standard

SR: 9.4.2#2

Synopsis:	Each case clause and default clause shall be terminated by a break statement unless empty.
Language:	C
Severity Level:	2
Category:	STATEMENTS

Description:

Allowing case clauses to fall-through into each other is a confusing practice - if two (or more) clauses share common tail code, that should be made explicit by making the tail code a function and calling it from each of the clauses that requires it.

Example:

switch( a )
{
    case 'c':
        j = 4;
    case 'd': /* WRONG - non-empty and no break. */
}

Example:

switch( a )
{
    case 'a': /* RIGHT - empty case */
    case 'b':
        break; /* RIGHT - break following */
}