Re: `math.integer` does not explicitly convert string to integer.

[Mike Nelson <mikestar1313@...>]

On 6/24/2016 7:38 PM, Duane Leslie wrote:
> I don't know if this is intentional or an oversight, but I have
> noticed that without the implicit string to number conversions (i.e.
> `LUA_NOCVTS2N`) the `math.tointeger` function will return nil when
> passed a string representation of a number.  By comparison, the
> `tonumber`  function will convert strings to numbers explicitly
> (obviously since that's exactly what it exists to do).
>
> I know I can trivially monkey-patch `math.tointeger` to run its
> arguments through `tonumber` first, but should `math.tointeger` also
> explicitly convert strings to integers where possible?
tonumber will convert a string argument to an integer if it is able to 
do so (no decimal point, exponent, or value out of range for an 
integer), and if not, converts the argument to a float if able.  You can 
check whether the result is an integer with math.type.  math.tointeger 
is used to convert a float to an integer. Leaving autoconversion of 
strings to and from numbers enabled  complicates the picture.