New to AS and stuck on IF statements

Question

I am trying to make a currency converter and Im using IFs to determine the from and to currency and then make the appropriate calculation. So far, I cant get anything to work. Here is the original code that I was using (but didnt work):
               var a:String=String (OriginCurrenyCode.text)
               var b:String=String (DestinationCurrencyCode.text)
               var c:Number=Number (AmountToBeConverted.text)
               if (a == "USD"){
                    if (b == "GBP"){
                         var ab:Number=Number (c*0.60)
                         ConvertedAmount.text = String(ab)
                    else if (b == "EUR"){
                         var ac:Number=Number (c*0.71)
                         ConvertedAmount.text = String(ac)
Obviously there is much more, and the conversion rates arent completely accurate but thats the basis. I've tried every possible change I can think of but have no idea how to make this work.
I am new to Actionscript and dont have any programming experience so any help is much appreciated.
Thanks!!!
Dave

Answer 1

I agree that the switch statement would make the code easier - and perhaps faster as well. But, I personally never use switch statements in any code I write ever. When I first began programming, an experienced programmer told me that switch statements are frowned upon.
Here's why (from wikipedia): "When implemented with fall-through as the default path, switch/case statements are a frequent source of bugs among even experienced programmers, given that, in practice, the "break" is almost always the desired path, but not the default behavior of the switch/case construct (at least in C and Java)."
So, I've always stuck with if, then, else type statements even though they are harder to read and can be more painful to write and have serveral other disadvantages.