It is often the case that data has to be converted from one type to another type. Some conversions are necessary at compile time (such as double
to int
); others are necessary at runtime (such as upcasting and downcasting pointers to the classes in a hierarchy). The language supports compatibility with C casting style in either the (type)expression
or type(expression)
form. However, this type of casting breaks the type safety of C++. Therefore, the language also provides several conversions, static_cast
, dynamic_cast
, const_cast
, and reinterpret_cast
. They are used to better indicate intent and write safer code. In this recipe, we look at how these casts can be used.
Use the following casts to perform type conversions:
- Use
static_cast
to perform type casting of non-polymorphic types, including casting of integers to enumerations, from floating point to integral values or from a pointer type to another pointer type, such as from a base class to a...