ENCODING SWITCH ON ORDERED UNIVERSES WITH BINARY DECISION DIAGRAMS

Various embodiments herein include one or more of systems, methods, software, and/or data structures to implement a multi-way branch statement in a computer programming language. The multi-way branch statement may include a plurality of case labels each having a non-primitive data type (e.g., strings) and being associated with a block of code to be executed dependent upon a control variable that also has a non-primitive data type. The implementation may include encoding the case labels for the multi-way branch statement as a binary decision diagram (BDD), such as a zero-suppressed binary decision diagram (ZDD), wherein the control variable for the multi-way branch statement may be compared with the case labels by stepping through the BDD. The BDD may include identifiers that provide information regarding which of the case labels is matched by the control variable, such that an appropriate code block may be executed.