Unable to append (integer) to integer field - is this bug or by design?

[Berto2002]

I have cases where I want to tally things (e.g. to count how many sub-tickets are created from the Problem record). At the right time, the workflow tries to append a '1' to a field that already contains one or more '1's.

It doesn't work. I only ever have one '1' in that field. My logica is that it's an integer field, '1' is an integer and the resulting field contents of '11' or '111' are integers so this should work.

I have another workflow that tallies the number of times a standard change template is used and that does work. The config is the same as above but using Custom G (a text field):

My request therefore is why are integers not appending?

If by design, why?

If bug, kindly rectify?

 

[Steve Giller]

2 hours ago, Berto2002 said:

My logica is that it's an integer field, '1' is an integer and the resulting field contents of '11' or '111' are integers so this should work.

Appending is a function that only applies to strings. This will absolutely not work. This is neither a bug nor by design, it's fundamental to the difference between a number and a string.

Pre-empting the next question, we do not guarantee that this idea will work for a string either (see previous discussions)

While the workflow is perfectly capable of appending text to a text (or varchar) field, using it in this manner conflicts with the codeless environment ethos and while there is no issue when using this  function as designed - for example appending the Customer's name to the Summary field - there are scenarios where appending multiple values to the same field will not produce the desired results.

[Berto2002]

Thanks @Steve Giller I will migrate to a non-integer field.