Understanding syntax in C#

Question

I am hoping someone can help me understand what is going on in the code line below:

Table t = (Table)Page.FindControl("Panel1").FindControl("tbl");

I understand Page.FindControl("Panel1").FindControl("tbl"); Why is there a (Table) before the Page.FindControl?

Answer 1

FindControl is declared to return Control (at a guess :) whereas you need to store the result in a variable of type Table.

The (Table) bit is a cast - it's basically saying, "I think this will be a Table. Check it for me at execution time, and then let me use it accordingly."