Illustrated C# 2012

C H A P T E R  16

Conversions

• What Are Conversions?
• Implicit Conversions
• Explicit Conversions and Casting
• Types of Conversions
• Numeric Conversions
• Reference Conversions
• Boxing Conversions
• Unboxing Conversions
• User-Defined Conversions
• The is Operator
• The as Operator

What Are Conversions?

To get an understanding of what conversions are, let's start by considering the simple case in which you declare two variables of different types and then assign the value of one (the source) to the other (the target). Before the assignment can occur, the source value must be converted to a value of the target type. Figure 16-1 illustrates type conversion.

• Conversion is the process of taking a value of one type and using it as the equivalent value of another ...