Implicit Casting

During expression evaluation, different value types may be implicitly cast in order to properly evaluate the expression. Implicit casting always means promoting one value type to another: INTEGER to STRING or INTEGER to REAL. BOOLEAN types may not be involved in mixed mode expressions. For example, when evaluating an expression using both INTEGER and REAL values, the INTEGER is promoted to REAL at the point where the two mix, and the result is a REAL value.

INTEGER and REAL may be freely mixed in expressions. At the point of contact between them the expression is treated as REAL. Until that point of contact the expression may be evaluated at INTEGER width. Division on INTEGER values implicitly promotes both operands to REAL before performing the division.

The following expression: (1+2+3+4)*(1.0*5)

evaluates as: (REAL)((INTEGER)1+(INTEGER)2+(INTEGER)3+(INTEGER)4)*(1.0*(REAL)5)

and: 5/2+4+5 evaluates as: (REAL)5/(REAL)2+(REAL)4+(REAL)5

while: '5' + 4 evaluates as: 5 + (STRING)4 //concatenation

Comparison operators are treated as any other mixed mode expression. Built-in Functions that take multiple values, any of which may be returned (such as MAP or IF), are treated as mixed mode expressions and will return the common base type. This common type must be reachable by standard implicit conversions.