how can we convert the type of the object using type casting

[subhadra tatavarthy]

object is the main class string and stringbuffer are the child classes

String s =new String("java");
object o=(object)s


Rule: A b=(C)d


Rule1: the type C and d must hava some relationship either same type or parent to child or child to parent, otherwise we will get compile time error

Rule2: C must be same are derived type od A other we will get compile time error

Rule3: the underlying object type of d must be same or derived type of c other wise we will get run time exception




any one can explain me in short and easy method

[Seetharaman Venkatasamy]

subhadra tatavarthy wrote:
Rule1: the type C and d must hava some relationship either same type or parent to child or child to parent, otherwise we will get compile time error

Correct. more specifically C and d both must be a class type. what happen if any one of them is interface?

subhadra tatavarthy wrote:
any one can explain me in short and easy method

almost you are clear with points. what example would you expect ? I can tell you one thing.*instanceof* operator behave same like what you explained above.

hth

[Seetharaman Venkatasamy]

Welcome to JavaRanch

[marc weber]

Note that you never actually "convert the type of the object" itself. You only change the type of the reference to that object.

[fred rosenberger]

I'd be a little cautious on your Rule 1.

class Grandparent {}

class Parent extends Grandparent {}

class Child extends Parent {}

Parent p = new Parent();

Child c = (Child) p; //this won't work

[Jesper de Jong]

To answer your original question "how can we convert the type of the object using type casting": You cannot.

Casting is not a way to convert objects from one type to another. Since String and StringBuffer are two different (unrelated via inheritance) classes, there is no way to convert a String to a StringBuffer (or vice versa) via casting.

The only thing that casting is, is a way to tell the compiler: "look, I have a variable that refers to an object of type X here, but the object is really of type Y, so I want you to treat it as if it's an Y". But this does not automatically somehow convert an X to an Y - if the object really isn't an Y, you will get a ClassCastException at runtime.

For example, suppose that you have a method that for some reason has Object as its return type:

Object someMethod() {
    return "This is really a String!";
}

Suppose that you want to call this:

Object result = someMethod();

Now result is of type Object, but you know that the method really returns a String. You can cast the result to String:

String result = (String) someMethod();

Now result is a String, despite that the method says that it returns Object.

Note that if you cast it to something else, for example a StringBuffer, you'll get a ClassCastException:

// Will compile, but gives you a ClassCastException when you run it,
// because the method doesn't return a StringBuffer
StringBuffer result = (StringBuffer) someMethod();