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Safe Conversions

In general, if there is the possibility that information will be LOST, a conversion between one type and another will NOT be performed automatically. A conversion from a data type that uses N bits to a type that uses fewer than N bits risks information loss, and will not be performed automatically. The compiler makes this decision by examining the data types involved, not the actual values involved.

In the following situations, the compiler will automatically convert from the type of the expression in a method call to the required type:

1. Converting an integer type to another integer type that uses more bits.
2. Converting a floating-point type to another floating point type that uses more bits.
3. Converting an integer type to a floating point type that uses the same number of bits may result in a loss of precision, but will be done automatically.
4. Converting an integer type to a floating point type with more bits will not result in loss of precision and will be done automatically.

"Loss of precision" means that some of the less significant digits may become zeros, but the most important digits and the size of the number will remain. For example 123456789 converted to 123456700.0 shows a loss of precision.

In the following situations, the compiler will not automatically perform the conversion.

• Converting from an integer type to another integer type with fewer bits.
• Converting from a floating point type to another floating point type with fewer bits.
• Converting from a floating point type to any integer type will possibly lose both precision and magnitude.
• Conversion to or from boolean is never allowed (not even with a type cast.)

Remember the sizes of the various primitive types (the primitive types char and boolean are not listed here):

type	number of bits
byte	8
short	16
int	32
long	64
float	32
double	64