Question

if I have a a request mapping similar to the following:

@RequestMapping(value = "/test", method = RequestMethod.POST)
@ResponseBody
public void test(@RequestParam(value = "i", defaultValue = "10") int i) {
}

And then call this request with:

http://example.com/test?i=

I get the error message

Failed to convert value of type ‘java.lang.String’ to type ‘int’; nested exception is java.lang.NumberFormatException: For input string: “”‘

I can solve this by either stopping the javascript client from sending empty parameters, or by accepting string values and only parsing if they are not found to be blank.

UPDATE: Later versions of spring now implement the originally desired behaviour.

I’ve just tested this in spring 4.3.5 and have found that the behaviour will now in fact turn the null value into the default value without raising a NumberFormatException, thus; my original mapping now works fine.

I am not sure which version of spring this behavioural change was made.

Answer 1

You could change the @RequestParam type to an Integer and make it not required. This would allow your request to succeed, but it would then be null. You could explicitly set it to your default value in the controller method:

@RequestMapping(value = "/test", method = RequestMethod.POST)
@ResponseBody
public void test(@RequestParam(value = "i", required=false) Integer i) {
    if(i == null) {
        i = 10;
    }
    // ...
}

I have removed the defaultValue from the example above, but you may want to include it if you expect to receive requests where it isn’t set at all:

http://example.com/test