*As Operator
The * AS operator is used to perform conversions between compatible types. The * AS operator is used in an expression of the form:
*expression*
**as**
*type*
where:
expression
An expression of a reference type.
type
A reference type.
Remarks
The *AS operator is similar to a cast, except that it yields null on conversion failure instead of raising an exception.
The * AS operator only performs reference conversions. The * AS operator cannot perform other conversions, such as user-defined conversions, which should instead be performed using cast expressions.