When should I define a (explicit or implicit) conversion operator in C#? [closed]

Answer 1

You can use a conversion operator when there is a natural and clear conversion to or from a different type.

Say for example that you have a data type for representing temperatures:

public enum TemperatureScale { Kelvin, Farenheit, Celsius }

public struct Temperature {

  private TemperatureScale _scale;
  private double _temp;

  public Temperature(double temp, TemperatureScale scale) {
    _scale = scale;
    _temp = temp;
  }

  public static implicit operator Temperature(double temp) {
    return new Temperature(temp, TemperatureScale.Kelvin);
  }

}

Using the implicit operator you can assign a double to a temperature variable, and it will automatically be used as Kelvin:

Temperature a = new Temperature(100, TemperatureScale.Celcius);
Temperature b = 373.15; // Kelvin is default