In this paper, finite-time contractive (FTC) stabilization and \(\mathcal {H}_\infty \) control are discussed for switched nonlinear systems (SNSs) under the switched nonlinear port-controlled Hamiltonian system (SNPHS) framework, where several transformation relationships are introduced to link SNSs to SNPHSs. To ensure finite-time stability (FTS) of the closed-loop SNPHS and further achieve finite-time contractive stability (FTCS), we develop a switching state-feedback (SSF) controller together with two trade-off-based mode-dependent average dwell-time (MDADT) switching schemes. FTC stabilization conditions are then derived for both SNPHSs and the associated SNSs. Moreover, to attain \(\mathcal {H}_\infty \) FTCS performance, we introduce the maximum ratio of the activation time of unstable modes and, together with the proposed trade-off-based MDADT schemes, sufficient conditions on \(\mathcal {H}_\infty \) FTCS control are also established for both SNPHSs and the associated SNSs via the SSF control design. Finally, a numerical example is provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed results.