<programming> (Or "coercion") The abilty of some compilers
to automatically insert type conversion functions where an
expression of one type is used in a context where another type
is expected.
A common example is coercion of integers to reals so that
an expression like sin(1) is compiled as sin(integerToReal(1))
where sin is of type Real -> Real.
A coercion is usually performed automatically by the compiler
whereas a cast is an explicit type conversion inserted by
the programmer.
See also subtype.
(1997-07-28)
Nearby terms:
Imperial Software Technology « IMPlementation language « implicit parallelism « implicit type conversion » implies » import » imprecise probability
