The as operator is used to perform conversions between compatible types. The as operator is used in an expression of the form:

expression as type

where:

expression

An expression of a reference type.

type

A reference type.

Remarks

The as operator is like a cast except that it yields null on conversion failure instead of raising an exception. More formally, an expression of the form:

expression as type

is equivalent to:

expression is type ? (type)expression : (type)null

except that expression is evaluated only once.

Note that the as operator only performs reference conversions and boxing conversions. The as operator cannot perform other conversions, such as user-defined conversions, which should instead be performed using cast expressions.

Example

// cs_keyword_as.cs
// The as operator
using System;
class MyClass1 
{
}

class MyClass2 
{
}

public class IsTest 
{
   public static void Main() 
   {
      object [] myObjects = new object[6];
      myObjects[0] = new MyClass1();
      myObjects[1] = new MyClass2();
      myObjects[2] = "hello";
      myObjects[3] = 123;
      myObjects[4] = 123.4;
      myObjects[5] = null;

      for (int i=0; i<myObjects.Length; ++i) 
      {
         string s = myObjects[i] as string;
         Console.Write ("{0}:", i);
         if (s != null)
            Console.WriteLine ( "'" + s + "'" );
         else
            Console.WriteLine ( "not a string" );
      }
   }
}

Output

0:not a string
1:not a string
2:'hello'
3:not a string
4:not a string
5:not a string

See Also

C# Keywords | is | ?: | Operator Keywords