Does the switch statement work?
I only used it with integers (but hey, they're just a number of bytes like a char array ;-) )
Does the compare work? Did you or one of the libraries overload the == operator so you can compare char arrays?
most of the time i just use memcmp(string1, string2, nrofchars);
it returns 0 it strings are equal and an other number when they aren't
(it's also usefull to sort alfabetically i guess ;-) )
just look for information on the net. It's a standard library function.
what do you mean with memory effective?
do you mean the fasted method or the one that compiles to the smallest code. (perhaps you should try a few methods since it can be compiler dependant)
When you realy have to have small and fast code, write it in assembly and link against it.