In this paper, we study the conjecture made in (IEEE Trans. Automat. Control 47 (8) (2002) 1401) concerning the existence of basic switching sequence for switched systems, and give it an affirmative answer and a construction method. This paper proves that for switched linear system, there exists a switching sequence such that the controllable state set of this switching sequence is equal to the controllable state set of the system. Hence, the controllability can be realized by using only one switching sequence. Then, the result is extended to the systems with time-delay in controls. Furthermore, we define the stabilizability of switched linear systems, and based on certain transformation of state coordinate, we give a necessary and sufficient condition for the stabilizability. Two examples are presented to illustrate the obtained results. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.