A lot of dynamic languages actually use strong underlying type systems which means that you can’t interchange between strings and number types, you have to explicitly convert.

A typical web example is a http url or parameter that represents a number. All HTTP is string-based but when acting on the value we often want to compare its numeric value against other numbers.

One common technique is to convert the string value to a native type invisibly in the framework but I think that in practice what is more useful is to treat all HTTP content as strings, exactly as it comes off the wire.

Then in the context of the response handler you explicitly convert it to a number when you need to, at the point it needs to be converted.

I think this makes it easier to read the code: parameters passed from the request are always strings. Once the string is bound to an identity that identity should never be rebound to a different type. If we need the value of that identity in a different form we perform an explicit conversion at the site where the different value is needed.

If we use that value more than once then DRY suggests that we create a different identity, say parameter_as_number (unless we have a better name), that also has a consistently typed value, number.