✨ Implement optional number to str coercion

docs/migration.md

@@ -333,7 +333,7 @@ This applies to all validation decorators.
 
 Pydantic V2 includes some changes to type coercion. For example:
 
-* int, float, and decimal values are no longer coerced to strings.
+* coercing `int`, `float`, and `Decimal` values to strings is now optional and disabled by default, see [Coerce Numbers to Strings](./usage/model_config.md#coerce-numbers-to-strings).
 * iterable of pairs is no longer coerced to a dict.
 
 See the [Conversion table](usage/conversion_table.md) for details on Pydantic V2 type coercion defaults.

docs/usage/model_config.md

@@ -528,7 +528,8 @@ See [Strict Mode](strict_mode.md) for more details.
 See the [Conversion Table](conversion_table.md) for more details on how Pydantic converts data in both strict and lax
 modes.
 
-### Arbitrary Types Allowed
+
+## Arbitrary Types Allowed
 
 You can allow arbitrary types using the `arbitrary_types_allowed` setting in the model's config:
 
@@ -584,6 +585,45 @@ print(type(model2.pet))
 #> <class '__main__.Pet'>
 ```
 
+
+## Coerce Numbers to Strings
+
+Pydantic no longer allows number types (`int`, `float`, `Decimal`) to be coerced as type `str` by default.
+
+Set [`coerce_numbers_to_str=True`](../api/config.md#pydantic.config.ConfigDict.coerce_numbers_to_str) to enable coercing of numbers to strings.
+
+```py
+from pydantic import BaseModel, ConfigDict, ValidationError
+
+
+class Model(BaseModel):
+    value: str
+
+
+try:
+    print(Model(value=42))
+except ValidationError as e:
+    print(e)
+    """
+    1 validation error for Model
+    value
+      Input should be a valid string [type=string_type, input_value=42, input_type=int]
+    """
+
+
+class Model(BaseModel):
+    model_config = ConfigDict(coerce_numbers_to_str=True)
+
+    value: str
+
+
+repr(Model(value=42).value)
+#> "42"
+repr(Model(value=42.13).value)
+#> "42.13"
+```
+
+
 ## Protected Namespaces
 
 Pydantic prevents collisions between model attributes and `BaseModel`'s own methods by

pydantic/_internal/_config.py

@@ -78,6 +78,7 @@ class ConfigWrapper:
     schema_generator: type[GenerateSchema] | None
     json_schema_serialization_defaults_required: bool
     json_schema_mode_override: Literal['validation', 'serialization', None]
+    coerce_numbers_to_str: bool
 
     def __init__(self, config: ConfigDict | dict[str, Any] | type[Any] | None, *, check: bool = True):
         if check:
@@ -173,6 +174,7 @@ def dict_not_none(**kwargs: Any) -> Any:
                 str_max_length=self.config_dict.get('str_max_length'),
                 str_min_length=self.config_dict.get('str_min_length'),
                 hide_input_in_errors=self.config_dict.get('hide_input_in_errors'),
+                coerce_numbers_to_str=self.config_dict.get('coerce_numbers_to_str'),
             )
         )
         return core_config
@@ -243,6 +245,7 @@ def _context_manager() -> Iterator[None]:
     schema_generator=None,
     json_schema_serialization_defaults_required=False,
     json_schema_mode_override=None,
+    coerce_numbers_to_str=False,
 )
 
 

pydantic/config.py

@@ -230,5 +230,12 @@ class without an annotation and has a type that is not in this tuple (or otherwi
     Defaults to `None`.
     """
 
+    coerce_numbers_to_str: bool
+    """
+    If `True`, enables automatic coercion of any `Number` type to `str` in "lax" (non-strict) mode.
+
+    Defaults to `False`.
+    """
+
 
 __getattr__ = getattr_migration(__name__)

pyproject.toml

@@ -61,7 +61,7 @@ requires-python = '>=3.7'
 dependencies = [
     'typing-extensions>=4.6.1',
     'annotated-types>=0.4.0',
-    "pydantic-core==2.8.0",
+    "pydantic-core==2.9.0",
 ]
 dynamic = ['version', 'readme']
 

tests/test_types.py

@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@
 from datetime import date, datetime, time, timedelta, timezone
 from decimal import Decimal
 from enum import Enum, IntEnum
+from numbers import Number
 from pathlib import Path
 from typing import (
     Any,
@@ -5870,3 +5871,46 @@ def test_decimal_float_precision() -> None:
     assert ta.validate_python('1.1') == Decimal('1.1')
     assert ta.validate_json('1') == Decimal('1')
     assert ta.validate_python(1) == Decimal('1')
+
+
+def test_coerce_numbers_to_str_disabled_in_strict_mode() -> None:
+    class Model(BaseModel):
+        model_config = ConfigDict(strict=True, coerce_numbers_to_str=True)
+        value: str
+
+    with pytest.raises(ValidationError, match='value'):
+        Model.model_validate({'value': 42})
+    with pytest.raises(ValidationError, match='value'):
+        Model.model_validate_json('{"value": 42}')
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize(
+    ('number', 'expected_str'),
+    [
+        pytest.param(42, '42', id='42'),
+        pytest.param(42.0, '42.0', id='42.0'),
+        pytest.param(Decimal('42.0'), '42.0', id="Decimal('42.0')"),
+    ],
+)
+def test_coerce_numbers_to_str(number: Number, expected_str: str) -> None:
+    class Model(BaseModel):
+        model_config = ConfigDict(coerce_numbers_to_str=True)
+        value: str
+
+    assert Model.model_validate({'value': number}).model_dump() == {'value': expected_str}
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize(
+    ('number', 'expected_str'),
+    [
+        pytest.param('42', '42', id='42'),
+        pytest.param('42.0', '42', id='42.0'),
+        pytest.param('42.13', '42.13', id='42.13'),
+    ],
+)
+def test_coerce_numbers_to_str_from_json(number: str, expected_str: str) -> None:
+    class Model(BaseModel):
+        model_config = ConfigDict(coerce_numbers_to_str=True)
+        value: str
+
+    assert Model.model_validate_json(f'{{"value": {number}}}').model_dump() == {'value': expected_str}