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From: James Kuyper <jameskuyper@alumni.caltech.edu>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: how cast works?
Date: Fri, 9 Aug 2024 20:31:44 -0400
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On 8/9/24 20:06, Kaz Kylheku wrote:
> On 2024-08-09, Keith Thompson <Keith.S.Thompson+u@gmail.com> wrote:
>> Kaz Kylheku <643-408-1753@kylheku.com> writes:
....
>>> "cast" means to (try to) project a value into another type.
....
>> I hadn't noticed before that the standard does have a formal definition
>> of the term "cast", ...

Neither had I - noticing that earlier would have shortened this
discussion (I hope).

That definition is:
"Preceding an expression by a parenthesized type name converts the value
of the expression to the unqualified, non-atomic version of the named
type. This construction is called a cast." (6.5.4p6)

The word "cast" is italicized, an ISO convention indicating that the
sentence in which it occurs is the official definition of that term.

> Based on surveying all you quoted, I basically nailed it above.

Not quite. A cast is "this construction", namely "preceding an
expression by a parenthesized type name". It describes a portion of the
text of a program. What you described as a cast is the semantics
associated with that construct when the program is compiled, not the
construct itself. (float)3 is a cast. "Convert 3 to a float" is not.