From 3621b6643792101ca02c70a861e88b9e4e091358 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: John O'Keefe <jrokeefe@protonmail.com>
Date: Wed, 27 May 2026 17:28:54 -0400
Subject: [PATCH] fix: handle MAL API returning numbers instead of strings for
 zero-value statistics

The MyAnimeList API inconsistently returns statistics status fields (watching,
completed, on_hold, dropped, plan_to_watch) as quoted strings for non-zero
values (e.g. "8217") but as bare numbers for zero values (e.g. 0). This caused
JSON unmarshal errors for anime with zero counts in any status field.

Introduce a FlexString custom type that implements json.Unmarshaler to accept
both JSON strings and JSON numbers, always storing the result as a string. The
type definition lives in MALTypes.go and the unmarshal logic in MALFunctions.go
to keep static types and behavior separate.
---
 MALFunctions.go | 15 +++++++++++++++
 MALTypes.go     | 16 ++++++++++------
 2 files changed, 25 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-)

diff --git a/MALFunctions.go b/MALFunctions.go
index 416c45c..cb6a5be 100644
--- a/MALFunctions.go
+++ b/MALFunctions.go
@@ -11,6 +11,21 @@ import (
 	"strings"
 )
 
+// Unmarshalling accidental numbers received from MAL to strings
+func (f *FlexString) UnmarshalJSON(data []byte) error {
+	var s string
+	if err := json.Unmarshal(data, &s); err == nil {
+		*f = FlexString(s)
+		return nil
+	}
+	var n json.Number
+	if err := json.Unmarshal(data, &n); err == nil {
+		*f = FlexString(string(n))
+		return nil
+	}
+	return fmt.Errorf("FlexString: invalid value")
+}
+
 func MALHelper(method string, malUrl string, body url.Values) (json.RawMessage, string, error) {
 	client := &http.Client{}
 
diff --git a/MALTypes.go b/MALTypes.go
index c2534ce..c827532 100644
--- a/MALTypes.go
+++ b/MALTypes.go
@@ -1,6 +1,10 @@
 package main
 
-import "time"
+import (
+	"time"
+)
+
+type FlexString string
 
 type MyAnimeListJWT struct {
 	TokenType    string `json:"token_type"`
@@ -129,11 +133,11 @@ type MALAnime struct {
 	Statistics struct {
 		NumListUsers int `json:"num_list_users" ts_type:"numListUsers"`
 		Status       struct {
-			Watching    string `json:"watching" ts_type:"watching"`
-			Completed   string `json:"completed" ts_type:"completed"`
-			OnHold      string `json:"on_hold" ts_type:"onHold"`
-			Dropped     string `json:"dropped" ts_type:"dropped"`
-			PlanToWatch string `json:"plan_to_watch" ts_type:"planToWatch"`
+			Watching    FlexString `json:"watching" ts_type:"string"`
+			Completed   FlexString `json:"completed" ts_type:"string"`
+			OnHold      FlexString `json:"on_hold" ts_type:"string"`
+			Dropped     FlexString `json:"dropped" ts_type:"string"`
+			PlanToWatch FlexString `json:"plan_to_watch" ts_type:"string"`
 		}
 	}
 }