Converting data from one type to another is called type casting, for example, conversion from Float to Integer, or from Double to String. With Java or C++, type casting is a very straightforward process because these languages have primitive data types. Look at the following Java example:

double d = 10.50;
int i = (int) d;

In Kotlin, everything is an object and so it requires some extra steps to type cast from one type to another. However, Kotlin provides a rich library that helps perform these conversions. Let's explore this with the following example. Create a Byte variable and assign a value of 10 to it. Create an Integer variable and attempt to assign byteValue to intValue:

var byteValue : Byte = 10
var intValue : Int
intValue = byteValue

Since the data types are different, the preceding code block will throw a type mismatch error caused by the compiler. Using the following line will not help either:

intValue = (Int) byteValue

The preceding example shows that Kotlin does not support automatic type casting, so we will have to invoke it explicitly. Kotlin's library is packed with a number of useful functions, and each data type can use these functions for type conversion.