Too weak variable type leads to unnecessary cast

Reports type casts that can be removed if the variable type is narrowed to the cast type.

Example:

  Object x = "  string  ";
  System.out.println(((String)x).trim());

Here, changing the type of x to String makes the cast redundant. The suggested quick-fix updates the variable type and removes all redundant casts on that variable:

  String x = "  string  ";
  System.out.println(x.trim());

Locating this inspection

By ID

Can be used to locate inspection in e.g. Qodana configuration files, where you can quickly enable or disable it, or adjust its settings.

CastCanBeRemovedNarrowingVariableType

Via Settings dialog

Path to the inspection settings via IntelliJ Platform IDE Settings dialog, when you need to adjust inspection settings directly from your IDE.

Settings or Preferences | Editor | Inspections | Java | Verbose or redundant code constructs

Inspection ID: CastCanBeRemovedNarrowingVariableType

New in 2018.2

Suppressing Inspection

You can suppress this inspection by placing the following comment marker before the code fragment where you no longer want messages from this inspection to appear:

//noinspection CastCanBeRemovedNarrowingVariableType

More detailed instructions as well as other ways and options that you have can be found in the product documentation:

IntelliJ IDEA 2025.3

Inspection Details
By default bundled with:	IntelliJ IDEA 2025.3, Qodana for JVM 2025.3,

Last modified: 03 December 2025