Use of encode and encodePacked

[GaurangBharadava]

I have a simple query like, When to use abi.encode and abi.encodePacked ?
And which issue can be occur while using both of them.
Also i have another query when to cast our output to bytes and when to cast to string?
Also if you can help me to understand proper typecasting of all the data types then it will be very great for me.

[EngrPips]

Hello @GaurangBharadava, You can use abi.encodePacked if you don't care about data preservation and you care about using less resources such as memory as abi.encodePacked will reduce the amount of memory required to store the output of the operation but you won't be able to decode the output back to their initial state, and the reverse is for abi.encode as you will be able to decode the data output back to their initial state, but it will take more space to store the result of abi.encode.

About the issues that can occur when using abi.encodePacked and abi.encode, I will say you need to use them frequently and you will discover that.

About casting to byte or to String, that is all on you and what you want to achieve when you are writing your contract intuitively you can know what data type you need to cast to.

About proper typecasting of all data types the more you use solidity in your personal project, the more you get comfortable with typecasting any data type appropriately.

[GaurangBharadava]

Got it, Great explanation. Thank you.

[EngrPips]

You are welcome, Friend. Keep crushing it.