Typecasting

$temp = Float("98.6") # Cast into a float variable; 98.6 $count = Integer("42") # Cast into an integer variable; 42 $bool = Boolean("false") # Cast into a boolean false $string = String(100) # Cast into the string "100"

You can also typecast between number formats, such as turning a hex number string into an integer:

$intval = Integer("0xFF") # Cast into an integer variable; 255

When you use strings in arithmetic, Puppet assumes that you did so intentionally and coerces them to the proper types. For example:

$result = "2" + "2" # Cast into an integer variable; 4 $multiple = 4 * "25" # Cast into an integer variable; 100 $float = "2.75" * 2 # Cast into a float variable; 5.5 $identity = "1024" + 0 # Cast into integer variable; 1024 (direct conversion)

When you interpolate variables into a string, Puppet converts them to their string representation using the most obvious method. If you need an explicit conversion, you can manually typecast. For example:

$var = 1 notice("The truth value of ${var} is ${Boolean($var)}") # Outputs "The truth value of 1 is true"

$input = "It is 32º outside!" $format = "It is %iº outside!" scanf($input, $format) # returns array of matches; [32] $input = "The melting point of iron is 2,800°F".delete(",") $format = "The melting point of iron is %i°F" scanf($input, $format) # returns array of matches; [2800]

Here are more example format conversions:

Conversion	Description of match
%d, %u	Optionally signed decimal integer
%i	Optionally signed integer with auto-detected base
%o	Optionally signed octal integer
%x, %X	Optionally signed hexadecimal integer
%s	String, or a sequence of non-white-space characters
%c	A single character
%%	A % character

You can cast case-insensitive strings of true/false, yes/no, non-zero/0, and integers of non-zero/0:

$value = Boolean('true') # true $value = Boolean('Yes') # true $value = Boolean('FALSE') # false $value = Boolean('1') # true $value = Boolean(0) # false $value = Boolean(127) # true 

Converting a hash to an array creates a multi-dimensional array by flattening each key-value pair into a two-element array as an element of another array. Converting an array to a hash interleaves alternating elements as keys and values.

$an_array = Array({a => 10, b => 20}) # results in [[a, 10],[b, 20]] $a_hash = Hash([1,2,3,4]) # results in {1=>2, 3=>4} $a_hash = Hash([[1,2],[3,4]]) # results in {1=>2, 3=>4}

The Array conversion also takes a second argument to "force" an array conversion. This slightly changes the semantics of the operation by creating a single-element array out of the first argument if it's not already.

$an_array = Array(1, true) # results in [1] $an_array = Array([1], true) # results in [1] $an_array = Array(1) # Raises a type error, cannot convert directly $an_array = Array({1 => 2}, true) # results in [{1 => 2}] $an_array = Array({1 => 2}} # results in [[1, 2]]