note 12136 deleted from control-structures.switch by spic

The switch statement performs an equality comparison (like using ==). Therefore, the value specified at the beginning of the switch statement can be any valid expression (it's comparable to the left hand operand of a == comparison), and the value specified for each case may be any valid expression (comparable to the right hand side of a == comparison). To illustrate: Here's a typical equality comparison with if: if (left_hand_operand == right_hand_operand) ... This is comparable to a switch like this: switch (left_hand_operand) { case right_hand_operand: ... } As you can see, switch implies a comparison using ==. Logically, it follows that arrays and objects also work in switch statements. I don't recommend it (the contents of an object, for example, aren't as predictable as those of a variable of simple type [numeric or string]), but using a complex type (array or object) does, indeed, work.