TextView textView = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.textView) is Upcasting or Downcasting?

Question

I am totally confused as to below code does upcast or downcast. If so how?

Is TextView a super class, I presume its a sub-type of View.

TextView textView = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.textView);

Answer 1

In short, It's down casting.

This line :

findViewById(R.id.textView);

Will return a view, But what kind of view it is ? (Button,List, TextView, ..) Look at this example :

public abstract class Car{
    public abstract void power();
}

public class BMW extends Car{
    public void power(){
        System.out.println(2200);
    }
}

public class Benz extends Car{
    public void power(){
        System.out.println(2100);
    }
}

Creating an object of above classes (BMW,Benz)

BMW bmw = new BMW();
Benz benz = new Benz();

public class CarFactory{

    public void create(Car car){
        if(car instanceof Benz)
            Benz benz = (Benz) car;
        else 
            BMW bmw = (BMW) car ;
    }
}

Both of them (Benz, BMW) are explicit cast, like TextView.

I hope this helps you