[SOLVED] Is it bad programming style to just typecast an object?

I have multiple sections of code where I take the selected object(using a selectionListener) from my tree and just work with a type casted version of that. for example

server = (Server)selObj;

works the exact same way as iterating through a loop doing selObj.getName().equalsIgnoreCase(servers[x]) where servers is an array created using ServerGroup.getChildren().

I'm assuming the typecast does the same as my loop, just behind the scenes, since I can comment out the compare loop and have everything work exactly as it should.

Is there some reason I shouldn't do this over the loop?

Are you getting your selObj via TreeSelectionListener's TreeSelectionEvent parameter, calling getSource() on it? If so, since it returns an Object, I don't see that you have much choice but to typecast here. But maybe I misunderstand your question.

No I'm getting it through

Code:

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((IStructuredSelection) event.getSelection()).getFirstElement()

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getSource() would give me something like TreeViewer@somecrap

I'm assuming that an element is another term for object? I guess ya it make's sense now that I think about it. To clear things up originally I was comparing the name of selObj to the name of each server object and if they were the same just setting server to server[x].

I guess it work's either way and after asking my boss his preference I was told to just typecast it. Makes it easier for him to review my code.