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  3. c# Casting v As operator

c# Casting v As operator

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  • N NormDroid

    Don't fancy seeing your code if you think b. looks like a great ape :rolleyes:

    www.software-kinetics.co.uk Wear a hard hat it's under construction

    S Offline
    S Offline
    Sahir Shah
    wrote on last edited by
    #63

    Somebody didn't read the subject of the post.

    Und wenn du lange in einen abgrund blickst, blickt der Abgrund auch in dich hinein.

    N 1 Reply Last reply
    0
    • N Nemanja Trifunovic

      PIEBALDconsult wrote:

      what are you people doing?

      SomeType obj = (SomeType)BloatedUglyUnreadableFrameworkFactory.CreateObject(someXMLStringThatIHopeWorksSometimesButNeverKnowForSure);

      utf8-cpp

      J Offline
      J Offline
      Jim Crafton
      wrote on last edited by
      #64

      You've been reading java code on the throne again haven't you? :)

      ¡El diablo está en mis pantalones! ¡Mire, mire! SELECT * FROM User WHERE Clue > 0 0 rows returned Save an Orange - Use the VCF! Personal 3D projects Just Say No to Web 2 Point Blow

      1 Reply Last reply
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      • S Sahir Shah

        Somebody didn't read the subject of the post.

        Und wenn du lange in einen abgrund blickst, blickt der Abgrund auch in dich hinein.

        N Offline
        N Offline
        NormDroid
        wrote on last edited by
        #65

        :wtf: are you going on about.

        www.software-kinetics.co.uk Wear a hard hat it's under construction

        H S 2 Replies Last reply
        0
        • N NormDroid

          I'd say more of a debate, but as we all know rules of the lounge, I'd say just go along with it and chill :)

          www.software-kinetics.co.uk Wear a hard hat it's under construction

          H Offline
          H Offline
          hairy_hats
          wrote on last edited by
          #66

          I seem to have upset some voters along the way. :-D

          N 1 Reply Last reply
          0
          • N NormDroid

            :wtf: are you going on about.

            www.software-kinetics.co.uk Wear a hard hat it's under construction

            H Offline
            H Offline
            hairy_hats
            wrote on last edited by
            #67

            Sahir seems to be comparing C# casts with a handler of equine animals.

            N 1 Reply Last reply
            0
            • D Dalek Dave

              No, I think it more of a lifestyle choice question.

              ------------------------------------ I will never again mention that I was the poster of the One Millionth Lounge Post, nor that it was complete drivel. Dalek Dave CCC Link[^] Trolls[^]

              G Offline
              G Offline
              GenJerDan
              wrote on last edited by
              #68

              Not that there's anything wrong with that.

              Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life. My Mu[sic] My Films My Windows Programs, etc.

              1 Reply Last reply
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              • H hairy_hats

                Sahir seems to be comparing C# casts with a handler of equine animals.

                N Offline
                N Offline
                NormDroid
                wrote on last edited by
                #69

                :) Indeed, at this rate he's going to hit an exception that he may not like.

                www.software-kinetics.co.uk Wear a hard hat it's under construction

                1 Reply Last reply
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                • N NormDroid

                  For those using c#, what do you prefer? A.

                  SomeObject obj = (SomeObject) e;

                  or B.

                  SomeObject obj = e as SomeObject;

                  www.software-kinetics.co.uk Wear a hard hat it's under construction

                  C Offline
                  C Offline
                  CPallini
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #70

                  I prefer directly throwing. :)

                  If the Lord God Almighty had consulted me before embarking upon the Creation, I would have recommended something simpler. -- Alfonso the Wise, 13th Century King of Castile.
                  This is going on my arrogant assumptions. You may have a superb reason why I'm completely wrong. -- Iain Clarke
                  [My articles]

                  1 Reply Last reply
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                  • N NormDroid

                    :wtf: are you going on about.

                    www.software-kinetics.co.uk Wear a hard hat it's under construction

                    S Offline
                    S Offline
                    Sahir Shah
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #71

                    Well in brief, if you are in the shower and drop the soap and there is an operator mentioned in the subject line around, there is a good chance he might be a hominid. I wouldn't advise you to try and pick up the soap.

                    Und wenn du lange in einen abgrund blickst, blickt der Abgrund auch in dich hinein.

                    1 Reply Last reply
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                    • P Pete OHanlon

                      Thanks Ennis - I'm a poor programmer then because I use as, rather than the double cast, which is doing the same work again. What happens internally with as is that it checks to see if the variable is of the type, and if it is it returns a non-null pointer to that type. With the is operator, you check to see if it is of the type and then you cast it - which still determines internally whether or not it belongs to that type (this is how it throws an InvalidTypeException). In any case where you are using code-discovery, such as IoC, then the as call is more efficient. [Edit]I should add that this relates to our plugin code where the client provides their own logic, and "forgets" to implement the appropriate interfaces.[/Edit]

                      Forgive your enemies - it messes with their heads

                      My blog | My articles | MoXAML PowerToys | Mole 2010 - debugging made easier - my favourite utility

                      modified on Thursday, June 23, 2011 9:30 AM

                      C Offline
                      C Offline
                      CPallini
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #72

                      Well a smart language like C# should provide the construct this way:

                      if (e is MyObject)
                      {
                      // here call MyObject methods on e
                      }

                      :rolleyes:

                      If the Lord God Almighty had consulted me before embarking upon the Creation, I would have recommended something simpler. -- Alfonso the Wise, 13th Century King of Castile.
                      This is going on my arrogant assumptions. You may have a superb reason why I'm completely wrong. -- Iain Clarke
                      [My articles]

                      1 Reply Last reply
                      0
                      • E Ennis Ray Lynch Jr

                        As is for poor programmers. If you know that e always is SomeObject then e should be typed as such using some other method. Otherwise you always have to check the result of the as operation. So then you have the following two scenarios which must always be in case A or case B:

                        if(e is SomeObject){
                        SomeObject someObject = (SomeObject)e;
                        }

                        or

                        SomeObject someobject = e as SomeObject;
                        if(someObject != null){

                        }

                        But then in case by I always here the response ... but I know e is always SomeObject. Really then maybe it should be defined as such. The AS operator is designed solely to support developers that don't have a fundamental concept of type. After all, for all of the time I have seen the is operator used with a subsequent cast, checking for null after the AS is a white rhinoceros.

                        Need custom software developed? I do custom programming based primarily on MS tools with an emphasis on C# development and consulting. I also do Android Programming as I find it a refreshing break from the MS. "And they, since they Were not the one dead, turned to their affairs" -- Robert Frost

                        D Offline
                        D Offline
                        Daniel Grunwald
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #73

                        I use the (cast) only when I know 'e is always SomeObject'. Which is a rare case - think stuff like (ThisClass)base.MemberwiseClone(). Otherwise, I prefer as + null check over is + cast. It looks cleaner to me, and is also more performant. 'a is T' gets compiled to the same IL as '(a as T) != null', so is + cast ends up casting twice (and last time I checked, the JIT was too dumb to optimize that).

                        E P 2 Replies Last reply
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                        • D Daniel Grunwald

                          I use the (cast) only when I know 'e is always SomeObject'. Which is a rare case - think stuff like (ThisClass)base.MemberwiseClone(). Otherwise, I prefer as + null check over is + cast. It looks cleaner to me, and is also more performant. 'a is T' gets compiled to the same IL as '(a as T) != null', so is + cast ends up casting twice (and last time I checked, the JIT was too dumb to optimize that).

                          E Offline
                          E Offline
                          Ennis Ray Lynch Jr
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #74

                          Like I said, my problem is that most developers that use AS do not subsequently check for null. The fact that the .NET framework is written stupidly is a completely other rant. (IMHO AS should use IS and not the other way around).

                          Need custom software developed? I do custom programming based primarily on MS tools with an emphasis on C# development and consulting. I also do Android Programming as I find it a refreshing break from the MS. "And they, since they Were not the one dead, turned to their affairs" -- Robert Frost

                          D 1 Reply Last reply
                          0
                          • E Ennis Ray Lynch Jr

                            Like I said, my problem is that most developers that use AS do not subsequently check for null. The fact that the .NET framework is written stupidly is a completely other rant. (IMHO AS should use IS and not the other way around).

                            Need custom software developed? I do custom programming based primarily on MS tools with an emphasis on C# development and consulting. I also do Android Programming as I find it a refreshing break from the MS. "And they, since they Were not the one dead, turned to their affairs" -- Robert Frost

                            D Offline
                            D Offline
                            Daniel Grunwald
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #75

                            Ennis Ray Lynch, Jr. wrote:

                            AS should use IS and not the other way around

                            How that? 'a as B' should be compiled to 'a is B ? (B)a : null'? That would be horribly stupid. Consider how this works on the assembly level: 'is' is a function that takes an object and a type token, performs a type test, returns non-zero if successful, zero otherwise. 'as' is a function that takes an object and a type token, performs a type test, returns the object if successful, null otherwise. Given that objects are non-zero by definition, it makes perfect sense to use the same function for both, and that's exactly what .NET does. What's stupid is that the JIT optimizer is so dumb that this leads to a performance difference visible to the programmer. If the JIT could simply optimize away redundant casts, nobody would have to care what as/is/casts compile to.

                            E 1 Reply Last reply
                            0
                            • D Daniel Grunwald

                              Ennis Ray Lynch, Jr. wrote:

                              AS should use IS and not the other way around

                              How that? 'a as B' should be compiled to 'a is B ? (B)a : null'? That would be horribly stupid. Consider how this works on the assembly level: 'is' is a function that takes an object and a type token, performs a type test, returns non-zero if successful, zero otherwise. 'as' is a function that takes an object and a type token, performs a type test, returns the object if successful, null otherwise. Given that objects are non-zero by definition, it makes perfect sense to use the same function for both, and that's exactly what .NET does. What's stupid is that the JIT optimizer is so dumb that this leads to a performance difference visible to the programmer. If the JIT could simply optimize away redundant casts, nobody would have to care what as/is/casts compile to.

                              E Offline
                              E Offline
                              Ennis Ray Lynch Jr
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #76

                              What do you think AS is doing now?

                              Need custom software developed? I do custom programming based primarily on MS tools with an emphasis on C# development and consulting. I also do Android Programming as I find it a refreshing break from the MS. "And they, since they Were not the one dead, turned to their affairs" -- Robert Frost

                              1 Reply Last reply
                              0
                              • N NormDroid

                                For those using c#, what do you prefer? A.

                                SomeObject obj = (SomeObject) e;

                                or B.

                                SomeObject obj = e as SomeObject;

                                www.software-kinetics.co.uk Wear a hard hat it's under construction

                                G Offline
                                G Offline
                                Gary Wheeler
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #77

                                As others have probably pointed out (but I'm too lazy to read the rest of the thread), the two versions do different things. 'A' throws an InvalidCastException if the cast isn't possible. 'B' sets obj to null if the cast doesn't work. Both are valid approaches, depending on the rest of your code.

                                Software Zen: delete this;

                                1 Reply Last reply
                                0
                                • N NormDroid

                                  For those using c#, what do you prefer? A.

                                  SomeObject obj = (SomeObject) e;

                                  or B.

                                  SomeObject obj = e as SomeObject;

                                  www.software-kinetics.co.uk Wear a hard hat it's under construction

                                  A Offline
                                  A Offline
                                  AspDotNetDev
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #78

                                  Like others have mentioned, us "as" when the object may be the wrong type. Also, "as" cannot be used for non-reference types (e.g., int).

                                  Help a brotha out and vote Managing Your JavaScript Library in ASP.NET as the best ASP.NET article of May 2011.

                                  1 Reply Last reply
                                  0
                                  • H hairy_hats

                                    I seem to have upset some voters along the way. :-D

                                    N Offline
                                    N Offline
                                    NormDroid
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #79

                                    It all balances out in the long run :)

                                    www.software-kinetics.co.uk Wear a hard hat it's under construction

                                    1 Reply Last reply
                                    0
                                    • E Ennis Ray Lynch Jr

                                      As is for poor programmers. If you know that e always is SomeObject then e should be typed as such using some other method. Otherwise you always have to check the result of the as operation. So then you have the following two scenarios which must always be in case A or case B:

                                      if(e is SomeObject){
                                      SomeObject someObject = (SomeObject)e;
                                      }

                                      or

                                      SomeObject someobject = e as SomeObject;
                                      if(someObject != null){

                                      }

                                      But then in case by I always here the response ... but I know e is always SomeObject. Really then maybe it should be defined as such. The AS operator is designed solely to support developers that don't have a fundamental concept of type. After all, for all of the time I have seen the is operator used with a subsequent cast, checking for null after the AS is a white rhinoceros.

                                      Need custom software developed? I do custom programming based primarily on MS tools with an emphasis on C# development and consulting. I also do Android Programming as I find it a refreshing break from the MS. "And they, since they Were not the one dead, turned to their affairs" -- Robert Frost

                                      P Offline
                                      P Offline
                                      PIEBALDconsult
                                      wrote on last edited by
                                      #80

                                      Hear hear! Except for that I don't like your first example; I do that to pass the cast value to another method.

                                      if(e is SomeObject){
                                      F ( (SomeObject) e ) ;
                                      }

                                      If I'm setting a variable or field I use as.

                                      1 Reply Last reply
                                      0
                                      • P Pete OHanlon

                                        Thanks Ennis - I'm a poor programmer then because I use as, rather than the double cast, which is doing the same work again. What happens internally with as is that it checks to see if the variable is of the type, and if it is it returns a non-null pointer to that type. With the is operator, you check to see if it is of the type and then you cast it - which still determines internally whether or not it belongs to that type (this is how it throws an InvalidTypeException). In any case where you are using code-discovery, such as IoC, then the as call is more efficient. [Edit]I should add that this relates to our plugin code where the client provides their own logic, and "forgets" to implement the appropriate interfaces.[/Edit]

                                        Forgive your enemies - it messes with their heads

                                        My blog | My articles | MoXAML PowerToys | Mole 2010 - debugging made easier - my favourite utility

                                        modified on Thursday, June 23, 2011 9:30 AM

                                        P Offline
                                        P Offline
                                        PIEBALDconsult
                                        wrote on last edited by
                                        #81

                                        Pete O'Hanlon wrote:

                                        and "forgets" to implement the appropriate interfaces.

                                        Then you throw an Exception and don't allow that malformed plug-in.

                                        1 Reply Last reply
                                        0
                                        • N NormDroid

                                          For those using c#, what do you prefer? A.

                                          SomeObject obj = (SomeObject) e;

                                          or B.

                                          SomeObject obj = e as SomeObject;

                                          www.software-kinetics.co.uk Wear a hard hat it's under construction

                                          P Offline
                                          P Offline
                                          PIEBALDconsult
                                          wrote on last edited by
                                          #82

                                          "Note that the as operator only performs reference conversions and boxing conversions. The as operator cannot perform other conversions, such as user-defined conversions, which should instead be performed using cast expressions." Two of three C# books I have here don't mention as at all.

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