Type cast

Casts scalar data type to each other or fails:

integer
float
binary
list
atom
time stamp triple {integer(), integer(), integer()}

The typecast interface re-uses a type field notation of printf format string due to historical reasons.

i - casts to signed decimal number (integer).
f - casts to double in normal (fixed-point) notation
x - casts to hexadecimal number using lower-case letters
s - casts to "string", the library uses binary for string representation
ls - casts to wide "string"
c - casts to list of characters
lc - casts to wide "string"
a - casts to existing atom
atom - casts to atom, create new if do not exists
t - casts to time stamp triple