Summary

Adds a new BuiltIn keyword Get Variable Type that returns the runtime type of a value using Robot Framework friendly type names.

Motivation

Robot Framework currently lacks a direct BuiltIn keyword for inspecting the runtime type of a value. Users typically rely on Python evaluation syntax:

${type}=    Evaluate    type($value).__name__

While functional, this mixes Python-specific syntax into test data, reduces readability for non-Python users, and is less discoverable than a dedicated keyword.

The new keyword offers a cleaner, more self-documenting alternative:

${type}=    Get Variable Type    ${value}

This is particularly useful for dynamic test data handling, building reusable and generic keywords, debugging variables, and implementing type-aware logic in keyword-driven and data-driven automation.

Implementation

• Added Get Variable Type keyword in src/robot/libraries/BuiltIn.py

• Returns normalized, user-friendly type names:

  • string
  • integer
  • float
  • boolean
  • list
  • dictionary
  • tuple
  • set
  • none

• Returns object for custom classes and other unsupported types

• Properly handles bool before int because bool is a subclass of int in Python

Tests

Added acceptance tests covering:

• String values
• Integer values
• Float values
• Boolean values
• Lists
• Dictionaries
• Tuples
• Sets
• None values
• Custom objects

Files Changed

• src/robot/libraries/BuiltIn.py
• atest/testdata/standard_libraries/builtin/get_variable_type.robot
• atest/robot/standard_libraries/builtin/get_variable_type.robot

Related Issues

No existing issue found.

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