You can use type casts to explicitly convert types.
Syntax
cast-expression :
unary expression
( type-name ) cast-expression
type-name :
specifier-qualifier-list abstract-declarator opt
The type-name is a type and cast-expression is a value to be converted to that type. An expression with a type cast is not an l-value. The cast-expression is converted as though it had been assigned to a variable of type type-name. The conversion rules for assignments (outlined in Assignment Conversions) apply to type casts as well. Table 4.5 shows the types that can be cast to any given type.
| Destination Types | Potential Sources |
| Integral types | Any integer type or floating-point type, or pointer to an object |
| Floating-point | Any arithmetic type |
| A pointer to an object, or (void *) | Any integer type, (void *), a pointer to an object, or a function pointer |
| Function pointer | Any integral type, a pointer to an object, or a function pointer |
| A structure, union, or array | None |
| Void type | Any type |
Any identifier can be cast to void type. However, if the type specified in a type-cast expression is not void, then the identifier being cast to that type cannot be a void expression. Any expression can be cast to void, but an expression of type void cannot be cast to any other type. For example, a function with void return type cannot have its return cast to another type.
Note that a void * expression has a type pointer to void, not type void. If an object is cast to void type, the resulting expression cannot be assigned to any item. Similarly, a type-cast object is not an acceptable l-value, so no assignment can be made to a type-cast object.
Microsoft Specific —>
A type cast can be an l-value expression as long as the size of the identifier does not change. For information on l-value expressions, see L-Value and R-Value Expressions.
END Microsoft Specific
You can convert an expression to type void with a cast, but the resulting expression can be used only where a value is not required. An object pointer converted to void * and back to the original type will return to its original value.