How to make an empty default case in switch expression in C#?

Question

How to make an empty default case in switch expression in C#?

I am talking about this language feature.

Here is what I am trying:

using System;
                    
public class Program
{
    public static void Main()
    {
        int i = -2;
        var ignore = i switch {
            -1 => Console.WriteLine("foo"),
            -2 => Console.WriteLine("bar"),
            _ => ,
        };
    }
}

Also, I tried without the comma:

using System;
                    
public class Program
{
    public static void Main()
    {
        int i = -2;
        var ignore = i switch {
            -1 => Console.WriteLine("foo"),
            -2 => Console.WriteLine("bar"),
            _ =>
        };
    }
}

Still it does not want to compile. So, I tried to put an empty function:

using System;
                    
public class Program
{
    public static void Main()
    {
        int i = -2;
        var ignore = i switch {
            -1 => Console.WriteLine("foo"),
            -2 => Console.WriteLine("bar"),
            _ => {}
        };
    }
}

And it still does not work.

Answer 1

You are studing expressions switch expressions to be exact. All expressions must return a value; while Console.WriteLine being of type void returns nothing.

To fiddle with switch expressions you can try

public static void Main() {
  int i = -2;

  // switch expression: given i (int) it returns text (string)
  var text = i switch {
    -1 => "foo",
    -2 => "ignore",
     _ => "???" // or default, string.Empty etc.
  };

  Console.WriteLine(text);
}

Or putting expression into WriteLine:

public static void Main() {
  int i = -2;

  // switch expression returns text which is printed by WriteLine  
  Console.WriteLine(i switch {
    -1 => "foo",
    -2 => "ignore",
     _ => "???"
  });
}

Answer 2

A switch expression must be able to evaluate to a value, as with all expressions.

For your purpose, a switch statement is the correct construct:

int i = -2;
switch (i)
{
    case -1:
        Console.WriteLine("foo");
        break;
    case -2:
        Console.WriteLine("bar");
        break;
}