JAWAHARLAL NEHRU TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY HYDERABAD MCA 2017 COMPUTER PROGRAMMING Previous Question Paper (August - 2017 - R13)

Type conversion in C converts a value of one data type into another. There are two types:

1. Implicit Type Conversion (Type Promotion): Performed automatically by the compiler when different data types are used in an expression. The smaller data type is promoted to the larger type (e.g., char to int, int to float) to prevent data loss.
2. Explicit Type Conversion (Type Casting): Performed manually by the programmer using the cast operator
   (type_name) expression
   . This forces the conversion of a value to a specific type, which may result in truncation or loss of precision.

The default case in a switch statement acts as a catch-all block that executes if none of the case constants match the switch expression value. It is optional but recommended for handling unexpected inputs.

Comparison with nested if-else:

• Readability: Switch is cleaner and more readable for multiple discrete integer or character comparisons.
• Flexibility: Nested if-else can handle complex logical conditions and ranges, whereas switch is limited to equality checks against constants.
• Performance: Switch statements are often optimized by compilers into jump tables, making them faster than long chains of if-else conditions.