Type conversions

Type conversion is a technique in wich variables of different types can be assigned to each other. There are two types of type conversions implicit and explicit. Implicit conversions are handled automatically by the compiler or runtime engine and explicit conversions are handled by the developer.

Basic scalars

The following table describes how the conversion of basic scalars works:

Source	Destination	Conversion method	Conversion test	Conversion errors	How the conversion is done

Source	Destination	Conversion method	Conversion test	Conversion errors	How the conversion is done
`int`	`int`	-	-	-
`int`	`decimal`	automatic	-	-
`int`	`datetime`	-	-	-
`int`	`string`	automatic	-	-	10 => "10"
`int`	`boolean`	automatic	-	-	1 => true; value != 0 => false
`decimal`	`int`	`int->fromDecimal`	-	-	Returns the integer part. Any fractional part of this decimal will be discarded. No rounding.
`decimal`	`decimal`	-	-	-
`decimal`	`datetime`	-	-	-
`decimal`	`string`	`string->fromDecimal`	-	-	See java documentation for BigDecimal.toString method
`decimal`	`boolean`	automatic	-	-	1 => true; value != 0 => false
`datetime`	`int`	-	-	-
`datetime`	`decimal`	-	-	-
`datetime`	`datetime`	-	-	-
`datetime`	`string`	`string->fromDateTime`	-	-	The date in ISO8601 format.
`datetime`	`boolean`	-	-	-
`string`	`int`	`int->fromString`	`string->isInt`	yes
`string`	`decimal`	`decimal->fromString`	`string->isDecimal`	yes
`string`	`datetime`	`datetime->fromString`	`string->isDateTime`	yes	true => if the string is a valid ISO8601 date, false otherwise
`string`	`string`	-	-	-
`string`	`boolean`	`bool->fromString`	-	-
`bool`	`int`	automatic	-	-	true => 1; false => 0
`bool`	`decimal`	automatic	-	-	true => 1; false => 0
`bool`	`datetime`	-	-	-
`bool`	`string`	automatic	-	-	true => "true"; false => "false"
`bool`	`boolean`	-	-	-

Complex scalars

Complex scalars can be implicitly converted by the compiler or runtime engine only if all the properties of the destination type are found in the source type with the same name and type. The following table exemplifies all the valid implicit conversions:

Source	Destination	Conversion method	How the conversion is done

Source	Destination	Conversion method	How the conversion is done
`type src {` `m1 as string` `m2 as int` `m3 as boolean` }	`type dest {` `m1 as string` `m2 as int` `m3 as boolean` }	automatic	Properties `m1`, `m2`, `m3` from `src` will be set in `dest` .
`type src {` `m1 as string` `m2 as int` `m3 as boolean` `m4 as decimal` }	`type dest {` `m1 as string` `m2 as int` `m3 as boolean` }	automatic	Properties `m1`, `m2`, `m3` from `src` will be set in `dest` except for `m4` which will be ignored.
`type src {` `m1 as string` `m2 as int` `m3 as boolean` }	`type dest {` `m1 as string` `m2 as int` `m3 as boolean` `m4 as decimal` }	-	Conversion must be handled by the developer because `dest` type has more properties than `src` type.
`type src {` `m1 as string` `m2 as int` `m3 as boolean` }	`type dest {` `m4 as string` `m5 as int` `m6 as boolean` }	-	Conversion must be handled by the developer because `dest` type has different property names than `src` type.
`type src {` `m1 as string` `m2 as int` `m3 as boolean` }	`type src {` `m1 as boolean` `m2 as string` `m3 as int` }		Conversion must be handled by the developer because `dest` type has different property types than `src` type.