Lesson 11: Typecasting

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    Typecasting is making a variable of one type, such as an int, act like another type, a char, for one single application.

    To typecast something, simply put the type of variable you want the actual variable to act as inside parentheses in front of the actual variable. (char)a will make 'a' function as a char.


For example:


#include <iostream.h>

int main()
{
cout<<(char)65;
//The (char) is a typecast, telling the computer to interpret the 65 as a
//character, not as a number. It is going to give the ASCII output of the
//equivalent of the number 65(It should be the letter A).
return 0;
}

    One use for typecasting for is when you want to use the ASCII characters. For example, what if you want to create your own chart of all 256 ASCII characters. To do this, you will need to use to typecast to allow you to print out the integer as its character equivalent.

#include <iostream.h>

int main()
{
for(int x=0; x<256; x++)
{        //The ASCII character set is from 0 to 255

cout<<x<<". "<<(char)x<<" ";
                //Note the use of the int version of x to                          //output a number and the use of (char) to
                // typecast the x into a character                              //which outputs the ASCII character that
                //corresponds to the current number
}
return 0;
}

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