Until Java 7, developers were not able to use String in switch-case construct. The only option was to write a huge if-else block like this

if(str.equals("Opt1")){
...
}else if(str.equals("Opt2")) {
...
}else if(str.equals("Opt3")){
...
}

In my opinion, switch-case although somewhat limited than if-else, is a cleaner construct.

With Java 7, one can use String in a switch-case just like an integer:

switch(str){
case "Opt1": ...
case "Opt2": ...
case "Opt3": ...
}

However, as there is still a substantial amount of Java 6 development, I thought I would share a cleaner alternative for conditionals involving String. However, this alternative is applicable only for cases where the existing conditionals use equals() method. Suppose you have an if-else block like the one shown above, then you can convert it into a switch-case construct like this:

First, define an Enum containing all the options

enum Options{
 Opt1, Opt2, Opt3
}

Then replace the if-else by switch-case like this:

Options option = Options.valueOf(str);
switch(option){
case OPT1: <task1>; break;
case OPT2: <task2>; break;
case OPT3: ...; break;
}

Update:

However, the switch-case alternative although cleaner, might appear slower in some cases. If the time taken by the tasks (taks1, task2 etc…) is very small compared to Options.valueOf() then the switch-case would appear slower as the valueOf method does several complex operations to return the correct enum.

If you would like to compare performance difference between the two alternatives, I have written a simple test available here.