Switch latency type in move data to int instead of string

[jlafayette]

I ran into a problem logging latency to New Relic where I couldn't use a comparison operator in NRQL (New Relic Query Language) because it's a string instead of an int.

Here was my first attempt at logging it:

txn.AddAttribute("snakeLatency", state.You.Latency)

And then I tried to show longer than normal latency in a dashboard using this query:

SELECT snakeGameId, snakeTurn, snakeLatency FROM Transaction WHERE (request.uri = '/move') AND (snakeLatency > 450) SINCE 1 day ago

This always returns 0 results because the > operator doesn't work between string and int.

The fix was fairly easy, but this had me puzzled for a while before I realized why it wasn't working. Fixed version:

latency, err := strconv.Atoi(state.You.Latency)
if err == nil {
	txn.AddAttribute("snakeLatency", latency)
}

Would it be possible to change the type to an int? I know this could break people's code, but it seems like a better type for this data, and could help save others from having similar problems in the future.

[ambadoom]

I definitely agree that it makes more sense as an int but I would be wary about changing the api in a way that could break snakes. Maybe this could be a change to save for api version 2?

[jlafayette]

I definitely agree that it makes more sense as an int but I would be wary about changing the api in a way that could break snakes. Maybe this could be a change to save for api version 2?

Totally agree - probably best to bundle this change in whenever the api already needs a breaking change from other more important things.

[bvanvugt]

I'll bring this up with the team, thanks @ambadoom for the bump 👍

For historical context --> we originally embedded units in the string, which is why it's the way it is today ie: "123 ms"

[bvanvugt]

We talked this over briefly, and think it's a worthwhile change to include in the next API version (whenever that is). Tagged accordingly so that it gets picked up then!