Type Casting
Type Casting
Type casting in Java is the process of converting one data type into another data type.
It is used when we want to assign a value of one data type to a variable of another data type.
Types of Type Casting in Java:
In Java, there are two main types of type casting
1. Widening Type Casting (Automatic) converting a smaller type to a larger type size
byte -> short -> char -> int -> long -> float -> double
- Converts a smaller data type into a larger data type
- Done automatically by Java
- No data loss
2. Narrowing Type Casting (Manual) converting a larger type to a smaller type size
double -> float -> long -> int -> char -> short -> byte
- Converts a larger data type into a smaller data type
- Done manually by the programmer
- May cause data loss
Example
public class Main {
public static void main(String[] args) {
// WIDENING CASTING (Automatic)
int myInt = 9; // int type (smaller size)
double myDouble = myInt; // int → double (automatic conversion)
System.out.println("int value: " + myInt);
System.out.println("double value: " + myDouble);
// NARROWING CASTING (Manual)
double myDouble2 = 9.78; // double type (larger size)
int myInt2 = (int) myDouble2; // double → int (manual casting)
System.out.println("double value: " + myDouble2);
System.out.println("int value: " + myInt2);
}
}