Conversion behavior

Method	Behavior
marshal()	Converts numeric request input or a Decimal object; returns null for empty or invalid unlocalized input. Exponent notation in request strings and non-finite floats are rejected. Optional locale parsing handles string input separately.
toPHP()	Converts non-null database values to Decimal objects; optional auto trim applies here.
manyToPHP()	Applies toPHP() to selected, non-null fields and leaves other values unchanged.
toDatabase()	Returns null for null or empty input; converts other input to Decimal when needed.
toStatement()	Uses PDO string binding.

The database enforces its own decimal precision and scale. The plugin does not add rounding rules, migrations or monetary currencies. SQLite's numeric storage can convert decimal values to numbers and does not offer the same exact decimal storage as MySQL or PostgreSQL.

The value object is immutable. Arithmetic produces a new object; it does not modify the original. Use decimal strings to avoid introducing float error before conversion.

See the Decimal object documentation for arithmetic, rounding and comparison APIs.