HP 3000 Manuals HP 3000 Manuals
Cast Operators
The cast operator is used to convert an expression of one type to another
type.
Syntax
cast-expression ::=
unary-expression
(type-name) cast-expression
Description
An expression preceded by a parenthesized type name causes the expression
to be converted to the named type. This operation is called a cast. The
cast does not alter the type of the expression, only the type of the
value. Unless the type name specifies void type, the type name must
specify a scalar type, and the operand must have scalar type.
The result of a cast operation is not an lvalue.
Conversions involving pointers (other than assignment to or from a
"pointer to void" or assignment of a null pointer constant to a pointer)
require casts.
A pointer can be cast to an integral type and back again provided the
integral type is at least as wide as an int.
A pointer to any object can safely be converted to a pointer to char or a
pointer to void, and back again. If converted to a pointer to char, it
will point to the first (lowest address) byte of the original object.
For example, a pointer to an integer converted to a character pointer
points to the most significant byte of the integer.
A pointer to a function of one type can safely be converted to a pointer
to a function of another type, and back again.