Cast

See Also: Type Conversion Functions, Data Types. Functions and Constants

Purpose

The Cast function returns a variable of the specified type that is the best conversion from the original variable.

Return Type

Specified type

Syntax

Cast( {Var}, {Type} )

Where:

• {Var} can be any variable, but not an expression or a constant value

• {Type} is the name of a data type, for example Number

Example

Procedure TestCast

    UInteger u

    Real r

    move 3.1415 to r

    // Move Real r to Unsigned Integer u, decimals will drop off

    move (Convert(r, UInteger)) to u

    Send Info_Box u "Result"

End_Procedure

Example

Cast differs from Convert in that it will not report conversion errors in data overflow situations. Cast will, however, still report an error if a string contains a value that cannot be properly converted to another type. For example:

Procedure TestCast

    String s

    Integer i

    Move ",.1" to s

    Move (Cast(s, Integer)) to i

End_Procedure

Notes

• The difference between Convert and Cast apply primarily to data-overflow situations such as changing an integer with a large value to a short. When a number doesn't fit you get an error with Convert and not with Cast. Strings are special. When you cast or convert from a string they do the same thing, which is to not raise data-range errors. However, if the format of your string is invalid, you get an error with Cast or Convert.