When using a switch...case statement, try to place the most frequently-occurring cases at the top of the list. This improves speed and efficiency for the most common cases. For example:

switch ( $user->writingHand )
   {
   case 'right-handed':
      print 'User is right handed'
      break;
   case 'left-handed':      
      print 'User is left handed'
      break;
   default:
      print 'Not sure whether the user is left or right handed!'
   }