Using static_cast<char> when converting to lowercase character

Hi everyone.

I was reading some source code and I cam across the line

cout << "\nu converted to upper case is " << static_cast<char> ( toupper('u') ) << endl;

Why would the programmer use static_cast<char> in conjunction with toupper to print 'U' instead of just typing cout << "\nu converted to upper case is " << toupper('u') << endl;

Thanks in advance for your input.

[rubberman]

There is no real reason other than "showing off". That said, toupper(int ch) returns an int, so they may have wanted to force it to return a char, which they could have done with a simple (char) cast which is effectively what static_cast<char> does. IE, a waste of space, and it makes the code more difficult to read and parse.

are there any other advantages to using static_cast<char> in any other situations?

and is it more proper to use (typeyouwanttocastavariable) [variable to be casted] or the "static_cast" or other types of similar casting functions in c++?

thank you in advance for the input.