Downcasting in Java

Question

Upcasting is allowed in Java, however downcasting gives a compile error.

The compile error can be removed by adding a cast but would anyway break at the runtime.

Answer 1

Downcasting is allowed when there is a possibility that it succeeds at run time:

Object o = getSomeObject(),
String s = (String) o; // this is allowed because o could reference a String

In some cases this will not succeed:

Object o = new Object();
String s = (String) o; // this will fail at runtime, because o doesn't reference a String

When a cast (such as this last one) fails at runtime a ClassCastException will be thrown.

In other cases it will work:

Object o = "a String";
String s = (String) o; // this will work, since o references a String

Note that some casts will be disallowed at compile time, because they will never succeed at all:

Integer i = getSomeInteger();
String s = (String) i; // the compiler will not allow this, since i can never reference a String.