Type Conversion in C#

Type Conversion

Conversion of one type of variable into another type of variable is called casting, as in the following:

int i = 10;
float k = 20.0f;

k = i; // it is possible
i = k; // not possible
i = (int)k; //again possible

Error in Casting

I am dividing this article into two parts, in the first part I'll explain why we can't convert an int into a short directly but the opposite is possible and in the second part I'll explain the other data type, float, by comparing it with int.

Part: 1 [int VS short]

As I said above, an int cannot be directly converted into a short but the opposite is possible. But I will tell you in this article how can you convert an int into a short too.

Explanation

int i = 10;
short j = 5;

i = j; // possible
j = i; // not possible

Now the question is how to convert int into short, so here we go-

int i = 10;
short j = 5;

i = j; // possible
j = (short)i; // now possible

Example

Snippet: 1.1

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
namespace Hello_Word
{
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
int i = 10;
short j = 5;
float k = 20.0f;
i = j;
j = (short)i;
Console.WriteLine("value is: " + j);
k = i;
// i = k;
Console.ReadLine();
}
}
}

Now I will show you what changes occur whenever we convert a large data type into a smaller data type.
(In this case it is for an int to a short.)

Snippet: 1.2

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
namespace Hello_Word
{
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
int i = 100000;
short j = 5;
float k = 20.0f;
// i = j;
j = (short)i;
Console.WriteLine("value is: " + j);
k = i;
// i = k;
Console.ReadLine();
}
}
}

Reason

This variation in input is due to the size of the int and short data types. An int size is 32 bits while a short is only 16 bits. Thus the input in the first case is 5 and in the second case due to the limited size, the short loses some memory from the data and shows 31072 as output.

Part: 2 [int VS float]

Type conversion between int and float data types.

Explanation

int i = 10;
float k = 20.0f;

k = i; // possible
i = k; // not possible

Now the question is, how to convert an int into a short, so here we go.

int i = 10;
float k = 20.0f;

k = i; // possible
i = (int)k; // possible

Example

Snippet: 2.1

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
namespace Hello_Word
{
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
int i = 10;
// short j = 5;
float k = 20.0f;
k = i;
i = (int)k;
Console.WriteLine("value is: " + i);
Console.ReadLine();
}
}
}

Snippet: 2.2

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
namespace Hello_Word
{
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
int i = 10;
// short j = 5;
float k = 20.0f;
// k = i;
i = (int)k;
Console.WriteLine("value is: " + i);
Console.ReadLine();
}
}
}

Reason

This variation in input is due to the size of the int and float data types. An int size is 32 bits while a float is large in comparison to an int (64 bits). Thus the input in the first case is 10 and in the second case it's showing 20 as the output.

Type Conversion in C#

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