Cast BIGINT values to int if possible

[derrabus]

Q	A
Type	improvement
Fixed issues	Replaces #6143, closes #6126

Summary

BigIntType casts values retrieved from the database to int if they're inside the integer range of PHP. Previously, those values were always cast to string.

This PR continues the work done by @cizordj in #6143.

[cizordj]

Nice to see this feature implemented 😄.
Thanks you all

[ondrejmirtes]

I'm not a big fan of this change. This now means that bigint properties now need to be declared as int|string and it brings additional complexity to the code.

[derrabus]

This now means that bigint properties now need to be declared as int|string

No, you can declare them as int in most cases. The string edge-case is rare enough that you can decide to ignore it in your project.

[ondrejmirtes]

Errr, what? Once we put a large enough integer value to the database, we need to declare string too. Of course from the point of static analysis, only code that declares int|string is safe.

[derrabus]

Errr, what? Once we put a large enough integer value to the database, we need to declare string too.

Which is only possible if:

• Your PHP is on 32bit
• You use BIGINT UNSIGNED on MySQL

In both cases, you deliberately decided to deal with integers that are larger than what your PHP setup can handle, so the "added complexity" you're talking about is justified.

And if that int|string union is too much complexity for your taste, you can still declare your property as string and the ORM will cast the integer back to string. You basically opt-out of the new behavior that you don't like. Everybody wins. 🙂

[ondrejmirtes]

Alright, thank you, hopefully this can be accommodated for in phpstan-doctrine correctly :)

[cizordj]

@ondrejmirtes by default, BigInts are signed 8-byte numbers that work well with PHP's integer type. However, if you're hosting your project on a 32-bit system, the PHP integer range is smaller, and larger numbers need to be converted to strings to function properly. The same goes for unsigned integers, as their range exceeds what PHP can handle, leading to the need to cast them as strings due to memory limitations. If your database uses signed integers, sticking to the integer type in PHP is just fine.

[derrabus]

Alright, thank you, hopefully this can be accommodated for in phpstan-doctrine correctly :)

💯 I have full confidence in the abilities of the authors of said package. 🚀

[ondrejmirtes]

Just one more question about this - if the mapped property contains a string it's still okay and Doctrine will write it correctly o the BIGINT column in the database, right?

[derrabus]

Sure. It should be the string representation of an integer, obviously.

[ondrejmirtes]

Thanks :) So int|string is a valid type declaration for property mapped as bigint :)