static_cast(foo) vs. (int)foo

Question

Could somebody please elaborate on the differences?

Answer 1

The difference is that (int)foo can mean half a dozen different things. It might be a static_cast (convert between statically known types), it might be a const_cast (adding or removing const-ness), or it might be a reinterpret_cast (converting between pointer types)

The compiler tries each of them until it finds one that works. Which means that it may not always pick the one you expect, so it can become a subtle source of bugs.

Further, static_cast is a lot easier to search for or do search/replace on.