Direct casting vs 'as' operator?

Question

Consider the following code:

void Handler(object o, EventArgs e)
{
   // I swear o is a string
   string s = (string)o; // 1
   //-OR-
   string s = o as str         


        

Answer 1

If you already know what type it can cast to, use a C-style cast:

var o = (string) iKnowThisIsAString; 

Note that only with a C-style cast can you perform explicit type coercion.

If you don't know whether it's the desired type and you're going to use it if it is, use as keyword:

var s = o as string;
if (s != null) return s.Replace("_","-");

//or for early return:
if (s==null) return;

Note that as will not call any type conversion operators. It will only be non-null if the object is not null and natively of the specified type.

Use ToString() to get a human-readable string representation of any object, even if it can't cast to string.