cmd/compile: conversion error is a bit inaccurate

[hirochachacha]

Please answer these questions before submitting your issue. Thanks!

What did you do?

If possible, provide a recipe for reproducing the error.
A complete runnable program is good.
A link on play.golang.org is best.

package main

func main() {
	s := "s"
	_ = 'r' != s
	_ = 1 != s
	_ = 1.1 != s
}

What did you expect to see?

I expected to see "untyped rune", "untyped int", "untyped float".

What did you see instead?

"type untyped number" which is not a searchable keyword in the https://golang.org/ref/spec.

# command-line-arguments
./k.go:5:10: cannot convert 'r' (type untyped number) to type string
./k.go:5:10: invalid operation: 'r' != s (mismatched types rune and string)
./k.go:6:8: cannot convert 1 (type untyped number) to type string
./k.go:6:8: invalid operation: 1 != s (mismatched types int and string)
./k.go:7:10: cannot convert 1.1 (type untyped number) to type string
./k.go:7:10: invalid operation: 1.1 != s (mismatched types float64 and string)

To be precise, conversion error here is already inaccurate.
The error message implies s := string('r') is incorrect code, but it's not true.
Also "type untyped" is redundant expression to me.

cannot compare 'r' (untyped rune) to string

or

cannot assign 'r' (untyped rune) to string

is correct one. (initial one is better in this context)

Does this issue reproduce with the latest release (go1.9.2)?

I can see the conversion error, but I can't see "untyped number" in the error message.

System details

go version devel +23aefcd9ae Wed Jan 10 00:00:40 2018 +0000 darwin/amd64
GOARCH="amd64"
GOBIN=""
GOCACHE="/Users/hiro/Library/Caches/go-build"
GOEXE=""
GOHOSTARCH="amd64"
GOHOSTOS="darwin"
GOOS="darwin"
GOPATH="/Users/hiro/.go"
GORACE=""
GOROOT="/Users/hiro/go"
GOTMPDIR=""
GOTOOLDIR="/Users/hiro/go/pkg/tool/darwin_amd64"
GCCGO="gccgo"
CC="clang"
CXX="clang++"
CGO_ENABLED="1"
CGO_CFLAGS="-g -O2"
CGO_CPPFLAGS=""
CGO_CXXFLAGS="-g -O2"
CGO_FFLAGS="-g -O2"
CGO_LDFLAGS="-g -O2"
PKG_CONFIG="pkg-config"
GOGCCFLAGS="-fPIC -m64 -pthread -fno-caret-diagnostics -Qunused-arguments -fmessage-length=0 -fdebug-prefix-map=/var/folders/wq/dwn8hs0x7njbzty9f68y61700000gn/T/go-build157306342=/tmp/go-build -gno-record-gcc-switches -fno-common"
GOROOT/bin/go version: go version devel +23aefcd9ae Wed Jan 10 00:00:40 2018 +0000 darwin/amd64
GOROOT/bin/go tool compile -V: compile version devel +23aefcd9ae Wed Jan 10 00:00:40 2018 +0000
uname -v: Darwin Kernel Version 17.3.0: Thu Nov  9 18:09:22 PST 2017; root:xnu-4570.31.3~1/RELEASE_X86_64
ProductName:	Mac OS X
ProductVersion:	10.13.2
BuildVersion:	17C88
lldb --version: lldb-900.0.64
  Swift-4.0
gdb --version: GNU gdb (GDB) 8.0.1

[odeke-em]

Thank you @hirochachacha for this report!

For the record, to be more explicit this seems like a regression in the error message, the results are:

Go1.9.2

https://play.golang.org/p/TYPAMUyqiEI

prog.go:5:10: cannot convert 'r' to type string
prog.go:5:10: invalid operation: 'r' != s (mismatched types rune and string)
prog.go:6:8: cannot convert 1 to type string
prog.go:6:8: invalid operation: 1 != s (mismatched types int and string)
prog.go:7:10: cannot convert 1.1 to type string
prog.go:7:10: invalid operation: 1.1 != s (mismatched types float64 and string)

Go1.10beta* and tip are

./prog.go:5:10: cannot convert 'r' (type untyped number) to type string
./prog.go:5:10: invalid operation: 'r' != s (mismatched types rune and string)
./prog.go:6:8: cannot convert 1 (type untyped number) to type string
./prog.go:6:8: invalid operation: 1 != s (mismatched types int and string)
./prog.go:7:10: cannot convert 1.1 (type untyped number) to type string
./prog.go:7:10: invalid operation: 1.1 != s (mismatched types float64 and string)

and diffing

--- before	2018-01-09 23:56:03.000000000 -0800
+++ after	2018-01-09 23:56:10.000000000 -0800
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
-prog.go:5:10: cannot convert 'r' to type string
+prog.go:5:10: cannot convert 'r' (type untyped number) to type string
 prog.go:5:10: invalid operation: 'r' != s (mismatched types rune and string)
-prog.go:6:8: cannot convert 1 to type string
+prog.go:6:8: cannot convert 1 (type untyped number) to type string
 prog.go:6:8: invalid operation: 1 != s (mismatched types int and string)
-prog.go:7:10: cannot convert 1.1 to type string
+prog.go:7:10: cannot convert 1.1 (type untyped number) to type string
 prog.go:7:10: invalid operation: 1.1 != s (mismatched types float64 and string)

and I can confirm that this CL https://go-review.googlesource.com/46912 aka commit d05a123 is the source of the regression when we changed the print verb to %L from %v in this line
d05a123#diff-9d35af26b63e3e6b782e46da7441af82R411

/cc @kshvmdn and @griesemer

[griesemer]

Thanks @odeke-em for the analysis.

For the record, gotype reports three errors:

x.go:5:6: cannot convert 'r' (untyped rune constant 114) to string
x.go:6:6: cannot convert 1 (untyped int constant) to string
x.go:7:6: cannot convert 1.1 (untyped float constant) to string

[griesemer]

The error messages could be better, but there are error messages. Not urgent. Moving to unplanned.

[linsite]

It's 2025.03, with 1.24, error messages are much better.

https://go.dev/play/p/TYPAMUyqiEI

./prog.go:5:13: invalid operation: 'r' != s (mismatched types untyped rune and string)
./prog.go:6:11: invalid operation: 1 != s (mismatched types untyped int and string)
./prog.go:7:13: invalid operation: 1.1 != s (mismatched types untyped float and string)

Go build failed.

[ianlancetaylor]

Thanks, closing.