I really don't like the C# "as" operator.  I have to admit that I made it a point not to use this solely because it made me have a brief moment of "VB.NET flashback".  I personally have a strong dislike for VB.NET syntax but that's just my preference.  Because of my VB.NET bias I did not look at the C# language spec to see if "as" functioned differently from

string foo = (string)myType;

As it turns out I tracked down a difficult bug in our system that was due to the fact that using "as" returns a null reference rather than throwing a class cast exception like c-style casting does.  Granted part of the problem was people swallowing exceptions in code, but I'm wondering: under what circumstances would one want the behavior that "as" provides?