При выполнении программы происходит преобразование ссылки или объекта к его конкретному типу, известному во время выполнения или компиляции. Что это за процесс?

This process is called type casting or casting. In Java, type casting allows converting an object or reference to another type, known at compile-time or runtime.

There are two main types of casting:

• Explicit cast: the programmer explicitly specifies the type to which the object should be cast.
• Implicit cast: occurs automatically, for example, when assigning a value of a smaller type to a variable of a larger type.

Example of explicit casting:

Object obj = "Hello";
String str = (String) obj; // casting object to String type

If the cast is incorrect, a ClassCastException may occur at runtime. Therefore, it is important to check the type using the instanceof operator before casting.