Make field parsing more flexible to avoid type casting errors

[sergiobpa]

Make field parsing more flexible to avoid type casting errors

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
The current parsing logic appears to be very strict about the expected data types, which leads to avoidable errors. For example, attempting to parse the value 20 into a double triggers an exception because the code cannot cast an Integer to double. Similarly, when reading 86000 into a field expected to be a String, an error occurs instead of automatically converting the value. This rigid behavior makes the system fragile when dealing with real-world data, where types may vary slightly but are still compatible.

Describe the solution you'd like
I would like the parsing mechanism to be more flexible in handling type conversions. If a value is numerically compatible (e.g., an integer where a double is expected), or can be safely converted to a string, the parser should perform the conversion automatically rather than failing. This would make the system more resilient and user-friendly, reducing the need for pre-processing input data.

Describe alternatives you've considered

Additional context

[Exlll]

Hi @sergiobpa, thanks for your request. :) Could you please show me example code of a number <-> number conversion that is causing issues for you (when using the latest version of ConfigLib, v4.6.4)?

In general, I'm not a big fan of automatic conversions between other types but I see the usability aspect of them. I don't think such behavior should be the default setting though, meaning that if I add support for something like this, it will have to be enabled via ConfigurationProperties.

What do you think?

[divios]

Hi @Exlll,

Thanks for the quick response! I understand your point about not enabling automatic conversions by default — I agree that it should be opt-in.

Here’s a minimal example that currently fails using ConfigLib v4.6.4:

@Polymorphic
    @PolymorphicTypes({
            @PolymorphicTypes.Type(type = ValueGeneratorConfig.FixedValueGeneratorConfig.class, alias = "FIXED"),
            @PolymorphicTypes.Type(type = ValueGeneratorConfig.RangeValueGeneratorConfig.class, alias = "RANGE"),
            @PolymorphicTypes.Type(type = ValueGeneratorConfig.GaussianValueGeneratorConfig.class, alias = "GAUSSIAN")
    })
    public interface ValueGeneratorConfig {
        record FixedValueGeneratorConfig(double value) implements ValueGeneratorConfig { }
        record RangeValueGeneratorConfig(double min, double max) implements ValueGeneratorConfig { }
        record GaussianValueGeneratorConfig(double mean, double std) implements ValueGeneratorConfig { }
    }

  items:
  "COARSE_DIRT":
    item:
      material: COARSE_DIRT
    buyPrice:
      type: FIXED
      value: 11.5 # works
    sellPrice:
      type: FIXED
      value: 1 # fails

At work, I usually use Jackson for configuration/data binding, and it handles these types of conversions automatically (e.g., integer → double, number → string), which is what I was expecting here.