byte b =(int)16.2; Is it possible? How?

[T Ponraj]

Hi Friends,

Is the below line is possible, My understanding so far it requires explict casting. Higher bit to lower bit(narrow), Explict casting is must.

BUT it compiles fine and RUNS fine and I m confused and lost my understanding.

The output is 16.

Help please to bring back my confidence on the above fundamentals.

[Varsha Joshi]

Hi Ponraj

As per my understading the line "byte b = 16" works becuase the value is in byte range that is -128 to 127.
If you try to assign the value out of range it will throw compile time error.

If you try to compile the line "byte b = 16.2", you will get compile time error:
possible loss of precision
found : double
required: byte
byte b =16.2;
^
1 error

so if you compile line "byte b = 16.2" with the explicting cast as "byte b = (int)16.2", you get output as 16 which is the integer of part of number 16.2.

Regards,
Varsha

[Kaydell Leavitt]

What we need to understand is that the compiler has "some smarts" but not a very good memory. By this, I mean that the compiler compiles one line at-a-time.

byte b1 = (int)16; // this works because the compiler can tell by this line that 16 is in-range

whereas

int i = 16;
byte b2 = (int)i; // this doesn't work because the compiler can't tell by this line alone whether the assignment is in-range or not.

[T Ponraj]

Great Kaydell, I understood the point, now.


Same thing like what you sid here,

char c = 16; //works fine

char a = 16;

char c =a; doesnot work.

[T Ponraj]

then why byte b =(long) 16.2; is not working, If we apply the same concept.

Many Thanks for your time..