C# Basic Operations and Type Conversions

Basic Operations

In C#, you can perform various arithmetic operations using standard operators. Here are some examples:

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int additionResult = 10 + 5;     // result will be 15
int subtractionResult = 20 - 8;  // result will be 12
int multiplicationResult = 7 * 4; // result will be 28
int divisionResult = 15 / 3;     // result will be 5
int remainder = 17 % 5;          // remainder will be 2
float floatDivisionResult = 15f / 4f; // result will be 3.75

Understanding Assignment in Programming

In general mathematics, equality signifies that the expression on the left side of the = is equivalent to the expression on the right side:

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3 + 2 = 5

However, in programming, the = sign is an assignment operator. The expression on the right side is evaluated and assigned to the variable on the left side:

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int result = 3 + 2; // result will be assigned the value 5

Data Types and Static Typing

C# is a statically typed language, meaning you must declare the data type of a variable before assigning a value to it, and the value must match the declared data type:

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int num = 0;
string name = "CFD";

// This will give a compile-time error because 'num' is an int and 'name' is a string
num = name;

// This is valid because we convert the int to a string
name = num.ToString();

Handling Console Input

By default, any input taken from the console is a string. You can convert this input to the appropriate data type using various methods:

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int k = 56;
var convertedToString = k.ToString();
Console.WriteLine(convertedToString.GetType()); // Outputs: System.String
Console.WriteLine(convertedToString);

var toNumber = Convert.ToInt32(convertedToString);
Console.WriteLine(toNumber.GetType()); // Outputs: System.Int32
Console.WriteLine(toNumber);

var intParse = int.Parse(convertedToString);
Console.WriteLine(intParse.GetType()); // Outputs: System.Int32
Console.WriteLine(intParse);

var intTryParse = int.TryParse(convertedToString, out int result);
Console.WriteLine(intTryParse); // Outputs: True
Console.WriteLine(result.GetType()); // Outputs: System.Int32
Console.WriteLine(result);

Type

Type Casting

Type casting allows you to convert a variable from one data type to another:

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int num = 65;
Console.WriteLine(num); 
Console.WriteLine(num.GetType()); // Outputs: System.Int32

long longNum = (long)num;
Console.WriteLine(longNum); 
Console.WriteLine(longNum.GetType()); // Outputs: System.Int64

Type

Useful Conversion Methods

  • int.Parse()
  • Convert.ToInt32()
  • int.TryParse()

Additional Resources

For more detailed information on type conversions and casting, visit the Official Documentation.

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