# Using floats / decimals as integers in a workflow and vice versa

**URL:** <https://cwl.discourse.group/t/using-floats-decimals-as-integers-in-a-workflow-and-vice-versa/333>\
**Category:** CWL Questions\
**Created:** [March 29, 2021, 7:39am UTC](https://cwl.discourse.group/t/using-floats-decimals-as-integers-in-a-workflow-and-vice-versa/333 "2021-03-29T07:39:16Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 2

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**Author:** ![mrc](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/cwl.discourse.group/mrc/32/3_2.png) [@mrc](https://cwl.discourse.group/u/mrc)\
**Post date:** [March 30, 2021, 6:33am UTC](https://cwl.discourse.group/t/using-floats-decimals-as-integers-in-a-workflow-and-vice-versa/333/2 "2021-03-30T06:33:16Z")

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Hey @jjkoehorst , thanks for posting this idea

I see the advantages to the user, but I feel like auto-rounding is asking for trouble.

Another option would be to allow for auto-conversion, but only where there is no loss of precision.

Third option is to change nothing in the CWL standards, but to remind people that they can choose to allow for multiple (numeric) input types and to handle any rounding in a manner that they see fit.

```auto
inputs:
  foo:
    type: [int, long, float, double] # just give me a number!

```

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