Sure, I didn't mean to imply that compilers never (or commonly didn't) detect that long if-chains could be optimized to jump tables, lookup tables, or if-trees.

Sure, I didn't mean to imply that compilers never (or commonly didn't) detect that long if-chains could be optimized to jump tables, lookup tables, or if-trees. I was just answering the more narrow question the GGP was asking: if switch statements were always lowered to if-chains and never compiled to jump tables.