Type Casts

JADE provides two distinct forms of type cast operations, each using the dot operator (.) notation. These forms are:

• Primitive type conversions (for details, see "Converting Primitive Types", later in this section)

• Type guards or guarded expressions (for details, see "Type Guard Expression", later in this section)

The language-intrinsic type conversions are deliberately locale-independent so that they produce the same result on any node. This enables you to write code in a locale-neutral manner, to ensure it produces the same results regardless of the locale. For details about:

• Control-specific methods relating to primitive type conversion, see methods of the TextBox and JadeEditMask control classes.

• Locale-dependent methods of primitive types (for example, the Date::format method), see the appropriate primitive type in Chapter 1 of the JADE Encyclopaedia of Primitive Types.

• Creating user-defined formats, see the LocaleFormat class and its subclasses.