Status: Accepted
Owner: pekka.klarck
Labels: Type-Enhancement Target-2.6 Priority-Low bwic
New issue 834 by pekka.klarck: Integer variables like `${42}` should create
`int` type not `long`
http://code.google.com/p/robotframework/issues/detail?id=834
Currently automatic integer variables like `${-1}` or `${42}` always create
Python `long` objects. This has a minor drawback that in certain situations
the string representation of these numbers contains `L` at the end (e.g.
`-1L` or `42L`) which can be confusing to users.
The reason we use `long` and not `int` is that earlier Python and Jython
versions overflew if the value passed to `int` was too big. The versions we
nowadays require handle this situation so that they then return `long`
automatically if the value is too big. We can thus use `int` safely when
creating integers.
It is possible, although highly unlikely, that this change can affect
someones test cases. Backwards incompatibility problems may occur if
someone verifies type to be `long` or is dependent on the `L` in the `repr`.
