select

The select statement is used to choose a particular statement to execute when the value examined by the select statement matches the particular case value. The following example from the book shows this:

select hour
   case 1: print "one";
   case 2: print "two";
   case 3: print "three";
.
.
.
   case 12: print "twelve";
print " o'clock."

The value of hour is examined and if it matches any of the case statements specified, control is transfered to that specific case statement.

Unlike the C programming language, the match of a case value does not “fall through” to the remainder of any case statements following the one that is selected; the select statement executes only the code for that case value; other cases are not executed, and execution continues with the next statement after the select statement.

A select statement ends with, and execution follows after the select statement with the first statement that is not a case statement.