The expression E cast as T
converts the value of expression E
to type
T
. Whether T is a built-in type or a user-defined type, the
effect is exactly the same as using the constructor function T (E)
.
The expression E treat as T
is designed for environments that perform static type
checking. Saxon doesn't do static type checking, so this expression has very little use, except to
document an assertion that the expression E
is of a particular type. A run-time failure
will be reported if the value of E
is not of type T
; no attempt is made
to convert the value to this type.