[GROOVY-1141] Automatic Integer -> BigInteger coercion needed

• Type: Bug
• Status: Closed
• Priority: Major
• Resolution: Fixed
• Fix Version/s: 1.0-RC-1
• Environment: Debian GNU/Linux Testing; Java 1.5.0_05; Groovy CVS 2005-11-16 14:47
• Flags: Patch
• Assignee: Jochen Theodorou
• Reporter: Dr. Russel Winder
• Created: 16/Nov/05 08:58
• Updated: 05/Apr/15 14:25
• Resolved: 12/Oct/06 05:14

Description

The statement:

BigInteger i = new BigInteger ( "20" )

works fine

BigInteger i = new BigInteger ( 20 )

fails with the message:

Caught: groovy.lang.GroovyRuntimeException: Could not find matching constructor for: java.math.BigInteger(java.lang.Integer)

since although there is a BigInteger ( int ) constructor there is no BigInteger ( Integer ) constructor and literals are Integer by default in Groovy. In fact, there seems no way of using an integer literal parameter as:

BigInteger i = new BigInteger ( 20 as int )

fails since the 20 as int appears to do nothing.

It would be useful if

BigInteger i = 20

worked but currently this fails with:

Caught: java.lang.ClassCastException: java.lang.Integer

as there is no cast route from Integer to BigInteger.