Upcasting and Downcasting in java

Question

I can understand what upcasting is but Downcasting is a little confusing. My question is why should we downcast? Can you help me with a real time example ? Is downcasting th

Answer 1

What You need to remember is that downcasting is allowed when there is a possibility that it suceeds at run time.

This will work:

Object o = doStaff();
String s = (String) o; 

This will fail:

Object o = new Object();
String s = (String) s;

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Q1: Why we should use downcast ?

It is generally up to developer, to used the downcast. Sometimes methods return Objects or use as parameter like equal method and then using subcast we can back to specific type.

Q2: Is downcast important ?

As everything in coding, but better word would be useful, IMHO it is.