Type and Effect Casts

Flix supports both type and effects casts but they should be used with extreme care.

A better solution is to use a compiler-checked supercast or effect upcast (if possible).

Type Casts

A type cast instructs the compiler that an expression has a specific type.

Warning️️: Type casts are by nature very dangerous and should be used with extreme caution!

A Flix programmer should, under normal circumstances, never need to use a type cast.

Example: Safe Cast to a Super-Type

The expression below casts a String to an Object:

unsafe_cast "Hello World" as ##java.lang.Object

(Note: It is safer to use the supercast expression.)

Example: Safe Cast from Null to an Object-Type

The expression below casts the null value (of type Null) to String:

unsafe_cast null as ##java.lang.String

(Note: It is safer to use the supercast expression.)

Example: Unsafe Cast

The expression below contains an illegal cast and triggers a ClassCastException:

unsafe_cast (123, 456) as ##java.lang.Integer

Primitive Values and Boxing

A type cast should not be used to box or unbox primitive values. Instead use the designated Java methods. For example, Integer.valueOf and Integer.intValue.

Effect Casts

An effect cast instructs the compiler that an expression has a specific effect.

Warning️️

Effect casts are by nature extremely dangerous and should be used with utmost caution!

A Flix programmer should not normally use effect casts except in two cases:

To cast an pure function to an effect polymorphic function.
To cast a pure function to an impure function.

Both cases are legitimate and safe.

Example: Safe Cast of Pure Function to Effect Polymorphic

Flix does not (yet) have sub-effecting which means that in certain rare cases it can be necessary to manually insert a cast. For example:

def findRight(f: a -> Bool \ ef, l: List[a]): Option[a] \ ef =
    def loop(ll, k) = match ll {
        case Nil     => k()
        case x :: xs => loop(xs, () -> if (f(x)) Some(x) else k())
    };
    loop(l, () -> None as \ ef)

Here the cast () -> None as \ ef is required because otherwise the function () -> None would be pure and not effect polymorphic as required.

Warning

Never cast effectful expression to pure. You have been warned.

Programming Flix