C++ Language/Type/Conversion/Casting

A "type cast" is a manually-programmed expression of type-conversion.

Traditional C programs wrote casting as (float)iVar.

C++ programs write casting as static_cast<float>(iVar).

When casting from a pointer-to-base-class into a pointer-to-derived-class, using dynamic_cast<> instead of static_cast<> adds a runtime check which returns NULL if the pointed-at object wasn't actually an instance of that derived class.

Additional information about casting (includes interactive examples)