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Need a downcast example

 
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The book only has the "Dog D = (Dog) Animal;" example for downcasting and shows that it compiles but then throws an exception at runtime.

So what's an example of a downcast where it works, and why would you need it?
 
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Here is an example of downcasting.

One place you need it is if you override the equals method inherited from Object. Because the parameter to the method is of type Object, you have to cast it to the type of the class to be able to access methods and variables defined in it.


[ May 15, 2006: Message edited by: Keith Lynn ]
 
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Hi Shawn,

Here's an example of a valid downcast.

class Dog {}
class Dogma extends Dog {}
class Dogmatic extends Dog {}

Dog dogwood = new Dogma(); // a Dogma object is upcast to a Dog
Dogma bush = (Dogma) dogwood; // a Dogma object is downcast from a Dog

You cannot upcast a Dogmatic to a Dog and then downcast it to a Dogma. You also cannot downcast a Dog to a Dogma. In the working example, above, the dogwood references a Dogma, so you can downcast the Dogma.

Hope this helps.
Steve
 
Shawn Kuenzler
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Great stuff, guys. Thanks!
 
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Whether a downcast succeeds at runtime depends on the true runtime type of the object -- that is, what was used with "new."

For example, suppose you have an Animal reference "a." You can satisfy the compiler by explicitly downcasting to type Dog...

Dog d = (Dog)a;

But whether this works at runtime depends on the true runtime type of "a." If you had...

Animal a = new Animal();

...then the true runtime type of "a" is Animal, and a downcast to type Dog will fail because an Animal (the object created) is not really a Dog. On the other hand, if you had...

Animal a = new Dog();

...then a downcast of "a" to type Dog will succeed, because the object referenced by "a" is, in fact, a Dog.
 
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