Type Conversion in C#

Type conversion is converting one type of data to another type. It is also known as Type Casting. In C#, type casting has two forms

• Implicit type conversion − These conversions are performed by C# in a type-safe manner. For example, are conversions from smaller to larger integral types and conversions from derived classes to base classes.
• Explicit type conversion − These conversions are done explicitly by users using the pre-defined functions. Explicit conversions require a cast operator.

The following example shows an explicit type conversion −

using System;

namespace TypeConversionApplication {
    class ExplicitConversion {
         static void Main(string[] args) {
             double d = 5673.74; 
             int i;
 
             // cast double to int.
             i = (int)d;
             Console.WriteLine(i);
         }
    }
}

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result −

5673

C# Type Conversion Methods

C# provides the following are most important built-in type conversion methods −

• ToBoolean - Converts a type to a Boolean value, where possible.
• ToByte - Converts a type to a byte.
• ToChar - Converts a type to a single Unicode character, where possible.
• ToDecimal - Converts a floating point or integer type to a decimal type.
• ToDouble - Converts a type to a double type.
• ToString - Converts a type to a string.

The following example converts various value types to string type −

using System;

namespace TypeConversionApplication {
   class StringConversion {
      static void Main(string[] args) {
         int i = 75;
         float f = 53.005f;
         double d = 2345.7652;
         bool b = true;

         Console.WriteLine(i.ToString());
         Console.WriteLine(f.ToString());
         Console.WriteLine(d.ToString());
         Console.WriteLine(b.ToString());
         Console.ReadKey();

      }
   }
}

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result −

75
53.005
2345.7652
True

Try the following example in the editor below.

You are given a character called ch, print the ASCII value of the character.

Example Input:

ch = 'a'

Example Output:

97