A.5.3 Conversions

Data type conversions can be performed explicitly to force the use of a specific data type for calculation. This can be done using one of the following functions.

Table A.10: Type conversion.

Type cast	Description
boolean(Integer)	cast to Boolean
integer(Real)	cast to Integer
real(Integer)	cast to Real
string(Integer, Real, Complex, Quantity, or Boolean)	cast to String

A typical example is to cast the value of an environment variable, which is usually given as a String, to an Integer value, e.g.,

a   = "3.56";
b   = integer(a);               // -> 3
c   = real(a);                  // -> 3.56
d   = string(b + c);            // -> "6.56"

In the example above the variable a is a String. However, the variable b contains the Integer and variable c the Real representation. When evaluating variable d, the sum of the values of the variables b and c will be calculated and converted to a String.

Some additional functions might be useful for operations with Complex or Quantity numbers:

Table A.11: Additional conversion functions.

Function	Description
value(Complex, Quantity)	value without a unit
unit(Complex, Quantity)	unit of a Quantity (String)
realpart(Complex, Quantity)	real part of a Complex number
imagpart(Complex, Quantity)	imaginary part of a Complex number

value() removes the unit of a Quantity and returns only its value which can be a Real or a Quantity. realpart() and imagpart() can be used to extract the real and the imaginary part of a Complex number which can be a Quantity too (the value returned has the same unit as the argument given). Finally, unit() returns the unit of a Quantity as a String. Some examples:

a  = (3.1 + 4.2 j) * 1 A;
// Remove the unit:
b  = value(a);                  // -> 3.1 + 4.2 j
// Get the real part of a quantity:
c  = realpart(a);               // -> 3.1 A
// Get the imaginary part of a complex number:
d  = imagpart(b);               // -> 4.2
// Get the unit:
f  = unit(a);                   // -> "A"