valuestring

A valuestring is a term used in computing to denote the textual form of a value as it appears in textual data, metadata, or user interfaces. It contrasts with the value’s native type, such as a number, boolean, or date, which may be represented in a structured form rather than as plain text.

In data serialization and interchange formats, values are often transmitted as strings, even when their semantic type is numeric or boolean. A valuestring preserves the exact characters a user typed or that were produced during formatting, which can be important for validation, search, or display. When parsing, a program may convert a valuestring to its corresponding typed value (for example, parsing "42" to the integer 42 or "true" to a boolean true).

Examples of contexts include CSV files where numeric fields may be stored as strings to preserve leading zeros, JSON strings that carry numeric-looking text, and user input in forms where values are captured as strings before validation. In databases, values may be stored as strings to avoid implicit type conversion, requiring explicit casting for numeric operations.

Common considerations with valuestrings include validation, trimming whitespace, locale-aware formatting, and handling of empty strings. Developers should distinguish between the raw valuestring and its parsed value to avoid errors and maintain data integrity.

See also: string, parsing, serialization, data type, type conversion.