How to add fields with number values

The reason why the widget for an Integer field is a text field is that the form element used from a browser is a text field. This means the browser is always returning text for an integer field.

This should not be a problem, since:

• When you add an Integer field to an entity, the field value is validated to be an integer; an input containing characters that are not digits (e.g. 2A, Q3, 2.0) is not accepted, and the users get an error message requiring them to enter only numbers for that field.

• PHP generally accepts a string containing only digits instead of an integer without to report errors. If you execute the following code, you would get 15 as result. (It requires the Devel module.)

  $a = "3";
  $b = "6";
  $c = "2";
  
  dpm($a + $b * $c);
  

  You would get the same result if $a is set to "3A".

By using Computed Field module you can achieve your goal, You need to have a good working knowledge of PHP and the Drupal API to use this module.

I maintain a small module called SpinInt on drupal.org which allows you to specify a scrolling integer widget in your field setup. Not sure if that's any interest but it's a bit friendlier than a text field I guess.