Implicit type conversion

Reports implicit conversions between the predefined XPath-types STRING, NUMBER, BOOLEAN, and NODESET. Helps to write XSLT scripts that are more expressive about types and prevents subtle bugs:

Example:

<xsl:if test="foo" />

is not the same as

<xsl:if test="string(foo)" />

The first test checks whether the element "foo" exists (count(foo) > 0); the latter one however is only true if the element actually contains any text (string-length(foo) > 0). Suggests making the type conversion more explicit.

Use the following options to configure the inspection:

Enable or disable implicit conversions between certain types
Always report explicit conversions that do not result in the actually expected type, for example, <xsl:if test="number(foo)" />
Ignore conversion from NODESET to BOOLEAN by using the string() function as a shortcut for writing string-length() > 0.

Locating this inspection

By ID

Can be used to locate inspection in e.g. Qodana configuration files, where you can quickly enable or disable it, or adjust its settings.

ImplicitTypeConversion

Via Settings dialog

Path to the inspection settings via IntelliJ Platform IDE Settings dialog, when you need to adjust inspection settings directly from your IDE.

Settings or Preferences | Editor | Inspections | XPath

Inspection ID: ImplicitTypeConversion

Inspection options

Here you can find the description of settings available for the Implicit type conversion inspection, and the reference of their default values.

To STRING

Default value:

None

To NUMBER

Default value:

None

To BOOLEAN

Default value:

None

Always flag explicit conversion to unexpected type

Option ID:

FLAG_EXPLICIT_CONVERSION

Default value:

Selected

Ignore conversion of NODESET to BOOLEAN by string()-conversion

Option ID:

IGNORE_NODESET_TO_BOOLEAN_VIA_STRING

Default value:

Selected

Suppressing Inspection

You can suppress this inspection by placing the following comment marker before the code fragment where you no longer want messages from this inspection to appear:

//noinspection ImplicitTypeConversion

More detailed instructions as well as other ways and options that you have can be found in the product documentation:

Inspection Details
By default bundled with:	CLion 2025.2, DataGrip 2025.2, IntelliJ IDEA 2025.2, JetBrains Rider 2025.2, PhpStorm 2025.2, Qodana for .NET 2025.2, Qodana for JVM 2025.2, Qodana for PHP 2025.2,

Last modified: 18 September 2025