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Safe Casts

Return a list of array data types to which a provided array data type can be safely cast.

Installation

npm install @stdlib/array-safe-casts

Alternatively,

To load the package in a website via a script tag without installation and bundlers, use the ES Module available on the esm branch (see README).
If you are using Deno, visit the deno branch (see README for usage intructions).
For use in Observable, or in browser/node environments, use the Universal Module Definition (UMD) build available on the umd branch (see README).

The branches.md file summarizes the available branches and displays a diagram illustrating their relationships.

To view installation and usage instructions specific to each branch build, be sure to explicitly navigate to the respective README files on each branch, as linked to above.

Usage

var safeCasts = require( '@stdlib/array-safe-casts' );

safeCasts( [dtype] )

If provided a dtype argument, returns a list of array data types to which a provided array data type can be safely cast.

var out = safeCasts( 'float32' );
// e.g., returns [ 'float32', 'float64', 'complex64', 'complex128', 'generic' ]

If not provided a dtype argument, the function returns a casting table.

var out = safeCasts();
// returns {...}

var f32 = out[ 'float32' ];
// returns {...}

var v = f32[ 'float64' ];
// returns 1

If provided an unrecognized or unsupported dtype, the function returns null.

var out = safeCasts( 'foo' );
// returns null

Examples

var dtypes = require( '@stdlib/array-dtypes' );
var safeCasts = require( '@stdlib/array-safe-casts' );

// Get the list of supported array data types:
var DTYPES = dtypes();

// Print the list of array data types to which a data type can be safely cast...
var list;
var i;
for ( i = 0; i < DTYPES.length; i++ ) {
    list = safeCasts( DTYPES[ i ] );
    console.log( '%s: %s', DTYPES[ i ], list.join( ', ' ) );
}

See Also

@stdlib/array-convert: convert an array to an array of a different data type.
@stdlib/array-convert-same: convert an array to the same data type as a second input array.
@stdlib/array-dtypes: list of array data types.
@stdlib/array-mostly-safe-casts: return a list of array data types to which a provided array data type can be safely cast and, for floating-point data types, can be downcast.
@stdlib/array-same-kind-casts: return a list of array data types to which a provided array data type can be safely cast or cast within the same kind.
@stdlib/ndarray-safe-casts: return a list of ndarray data types to which a provided ndarray data type can be safely cast.

Notice

This package is part of stdlib, a standard library for JavaScript and Node.js, with an emphasis on numerical and scientific computing. The library provides a collection of robust, high performance libraries for mathematics, statistics, streams, utilities, and more.

For more information on the project, filing bug reports and feature requests, and guidance on how to develop stdlib, see the main project repository.

Community

License

See LICENSE.

Copyright

Copyright © 2016-2025. The Stdlib Authors.

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