Typecasting in Python

In this tutorial, we will learn how typecasting happens in Python.

We come across different kinds of arithmetic operations in which multiple data types are involved and then results are obtained accordingly.

Here we will discuss both,

1. Implicit type conversion
2. Explicit type conversion

Let’s understand them with the help of programs-

Implicit Type Conversion

During the implicit type conversion, the user is not supposed to mention any specific data type during the conversion.

The following program illustrates how it can be done in Python.

Output:

10
The type of a is <class 'int'>
4.5
The type of b is <class 'float'>
4.0
The type of c is <class 'float'>
5.0
The type of d is <class 'float'>
The product of a and b is  45.0
The addition of c and d is  9.0

Explanation-

Let’s have a glance at the explanation of this program.

1. To check how the values get converted on performing the operations we have initialized the values of a,b, c and d.
2. After this, we have checked the data type of each one of them.
3. Finally, we have performed addition on the variables a and b and multiplication on the variables c and d.
4. On executing the above program, we can observe that in the case of the product the final result is a float value(a was an integer and b was float).

Now, it’s time to move on to the next thing which is explicit type conversion.

Explicit Type Conversion

In this type conversion, the user is supposed to pass the value in a function to obtain the required data type.

The int(), float() and str() are mostly used for the explicit type conversion.

Consider the program given below,

Output:

The type of 'a' before typecasting is  <class 'float'>
10
The type of 'a' after typecasting is <class 'float'>
The type of 'b' before typecasting is  <class 'float'>
8
The type of 'b' after typecasting  is <class 'float'>
The type of 'c' before typecasting is  <class 'int'>
7.0
The type of 'c' after typecasting is <class 'int'>

Explanation-

Let’s understand what we have done in this program.

1. We have initialized the values of a, b, and c.
2. We have used int() and float() in this program to see how does explicit type conversion takes place.
3. On executing this program, we can verify how the data type changes.

Finally, let us have a look at the last program of this article that covers possible types of explicit type conversions.

Output:

The type of 'a' before typecasting is  <class 'int'>
10
The type of 'a' after typecasting is <class 'int'>
The type of 'b' before typecasting is  <class 'str'>
8
The type of 'b' after typecasting  is <class 'str'>
The type of 'c' before typecasting is  <class 'str'>
7.9
The type of 'c' after typecasting is <class 'str'>

Explanation-

The approach is similar to the above program and in this program, we have included conversion using all the three int(), str(), and float().

Conclusion

In this tutorial, we learned what is typecasting in python, what are its types, and how it can be performed in Python.