Type Conversion in Java

Lecture 8:- Type Conversion in Java

In Java, type conversion is the process of converting data from one data type to another. There are two types of type conversion: Implicit (automatic) type conversion, also known as widening, and Explicit (manual) type conversion, also known as narrowing or casting.

1. Implicit Type Conversion (Widening): Implicit type conversion happens automatically when a smaller data type is converted into a larger data type, and there is no data loss or precision issue. Java performs implicit type conversion in certain situations, such as when you perform operations involving different data types.

Example of implicit type conversion:

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int num1 = 10;
long num2 = num1; // Implicit type conversion: int to long

In the example above, the int value num1 is automatically converted to a long value num2 without any explicit casting.

2. Explicit Type Conversion (Narrowing or Casting): Explicit type conversion is done manually when a larger data type is converted into a smaller data type. Since there is a possibility of data loss or loss of precision, you need to explicitly specify the type conversion using parentheses and the desired data type.

Example of explicit type conversion:

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double pi = 3.141592653589793;
int roundedPi = (int) pi; // Explicit type conversion: double to int

In the example above, the double value pi is explicitly converted to an int value roundedPi. Keep in mind that the explicit conversion truncates the decimal part of the double value, so the result is 3.

Note: Be cautious when using explicit type conversion (casting) as it may result in data loss or unexpected behavior if the values are outside the range of the target data type.

There are also other cases of type conversion, such as converting primitive data types to their corresponding wrapper classes (auto-boxing) and vice versa (auto-unboxing). Additionally, you can convert strings to numbers and vice versa using appropriate methods like Integer.parseInt() or Integer.toString(), respectively.

Overall, understanding type conversion is essential to handle different data types and ensure that your program behaves as expected when dealing with various data representations.

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