VARA.STATIC: if Data Type (Attribute) is changed to "Number" only the values in Value 1 column are checked

Products

• CA Automic One Automation

Issue/Introduction

A VARA.STATIC can have a data type e.g. number, however if you change it, only values in Value 1 column are checked for plausibility, if a invalid entry is found in Value 2 - 5 column it is not checked.

We can reproduce the issue

Step 1 Create a VARA.STATIC, fill in text values into Value 1 - Value 3 Fields  
Step 2 Go to Variable Attributes, change Data Type to number, try to save this variable
Saving will fail and tell that invalid entries are found in variable, which is OK, since the values are Text
Step 3 Go back to Variables tab, and change only the values for Value-1 column so they are number fields, save the variable

We can find that the variable is saved with no errormessage, but the values in Value 2-5 are not valid as numbers but text.

Environment

Release : 12.3

Component : AUTOMATION ENGINE

Resolution

This is behavior by design and can't be changed. In older AE core version - variables had only one column and therefore the check is based on this column but customer needed more columns - but the check is still based on the first column and is valid.

Use case 
If you must store a number on column 1 and need the entity in column 2 - this is only possible if the check is not done on all columns.

This behavior must not be changed as customers do have mixed values and would break all environments.