You can't: $ cat foo.c #include <stdio.h> main() { const char *foo = "bar"; switch (foo) { case "foo": pri

You can't: $ cat foo.c #include <stdio.h> main() { const char *foo = "bar"; switch (foo) { case "foo": printf("foo\n"); } } $ gcc -pedantic -std=c99 foo.c -o foo foo.c: In function ‘main’: foo.c:4: error: switch quantity not an integer foo.c:5: error: case label does not reduce to an integer constant