byte? doesn't work as a parameter type in an iBatis parameterMap

Question

According to the iBatis docs, using "byte?" as a type value should work in parameterMap. I'm using DataMapper version 1.6.1.

The error message I'm getting is: Could not load type from string value 'byte?'.

It's a configuration exception which shows this information in the stack trace:

The error occurred while loading SqlMap.

• Check the parameter mapping typeHandler attribute '' (must be a ITypeHandlerCallback implementation).
• The error occurred in [sqlMap embedded="MyApp.Data.Config.Rate.xml, MyApp" Mxmlns="http://ibatis.apache.org/dataMapper"]
• Check the Rate.InsertParams.]

Here's the XML block for Rate.InsertParams:

<parameterMaps>
<parameterMap id="InsertParams" class="RateCategory">
  <parameter property="RateId" column="RateId" type="int"/>
  <parameter property="Name" column="Name" type="string" size="32"/>
  <parameter property="Charge" column="Charge" type="decimal?"/>
  <parameter property="ChargeTypeId" column="ChargeTypeId" type="byte?"/>
</parameterMap>

Any ideas why it won't work?

Answer 1

After lots of asking and posting, the final answer is that the docs are wrong.

The official iBatis.Net forum had this to say:

"You have a few options:

1. just use type="byte"
2. don't specify the type
3. byte? is syntactic sugar System.Nullable`1[[System.Byte]]"

Which is basically what I had already figured out myself. int? works but byte? doesn't. Neither does short? or long?.

The docs need to be fixed.

Answer 2

As far as I can tell, there isn't any "byte?" alias. Here is a proof.

You can also figure out what is for sure supported and what not from this file.

"Code never lies." Documentation does :(