Is vs As operator keyword in C#

Last Updated : 21 Jan, 2019

The difference between is and as operators are as follows:

The is operator is used to check if the run-time type of an object is compatible with the given type or not whereas as operator is used to perform conversion between compatible reference types or Nullable types.
The is operator is of boolean type whereas as operator is not of boolean type.
The is operator returns true if the given object is of the same type whereas as operator returns the object when they are compatible with the given type.
The is operator returns false if the given object is not of the same type whereas as operator return null if the conversion is not possible.
The is operator is used for only reference, boxing, and unboxing conversions whereas as operator is used only for nullable, reference and boxing conversions

Example of is operator:

CSharp

// C# program to illustrate the
// use of is operator keyword
using System;

// taking a class
public class P { }

// taking a class
// derived from P
public class P1 : P { }

// taking a class
public class P2 { }

// Driver Class
public class GFG {

    // Main Method
    public static void Main()
    {

        // creating an instance
        // of class P
        P o1 = new P();

        // creating an instance
        // of class P1
        P1 o2 = new P1();

        // checking whether 'o1'
        // is of type 'P'
        Console.WriteLine(o1 is P);

        // checking whether 'o1' is
        // of type Object class
        // (Base class for all classes)
        Console.WriteLine(o1 is Object);

        // checking whether 'o2'
        // is of type 'P1'
        Console.WriteLine(o2 is P1);

        // checking whether 'o2' is
        // of type Object class
        // (Base class for all classes)
        Console.WriteLine(o2 is Object);

        // checking whether 'o2'
        // is of type 'P'
        // it will return true as P1
        // is derived from P
        Console.WriteLine(o2 is P1);

        // checking whether o1
        // is of type P2
        // it will return false
        Console.WriteLine(o1 is P2);

        // checking whether o2
        // is of type P2
        // it will return false
        Console.WriteLine(o2 is P2);
    }
}

Output:

True
True
True
True
True
False
False

Example of as operator:

CSharp

// C# program to illustrate the
// concept of 'as' operator
using System;

// Classes
class Y { }
class Z { }

class GFG {

    // Main method
    static void Main()
    {

        // creating and initializing object array
        object[] o = new object[5];
        o[0] = new Y();
        o[1] = new Z();
        o[2] = "Hello";
        o[3] = 4759.0;
        o[4] = null;

        for (int q = 0; q < o.Length; ++q) {

            // using as operator
            string str1 = o[q] as string;

            Console.Write("{0}:", q);

            // checking for the result
            if (str1 != null) {
                Console.WriteLine("'" + str1 + "'");
            }
            else {
                Console.WriteLine("Is is not a string");
            }
        }
    }
}

Output:

0:Is is not a string
1:Is is not a string
2:'Hello'
3:Is is not a string
4:Is is not a string

C# | is Operator Keyword

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Is vs As operator keyword in C#

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