CAST

Oh Gosh, i am reversing some code to work on a pre 7.4 Stack, and i have come across this new cast statement.  I am not sure what i am looking at here.

The original code was:

*        DATA(writer) = CAST if_sxml_writer(
*                              cl_sxml_string_writer=>create( type = if_sxml=>co_xt_json ) ).

I figure it would be:

DATA: writer TYPE REF TO IF_SXML_WRITER.
         writer ?= cl_sxml_string_writer=>create( type = if_sxml=>co_xt_json ).

Am i remotely correct?

Thanks,

Steve