Why does getChainId return number instead of string?

[Arvolear]

The web3js getChainId function returns number, however EIP-695 states that the RPC returns string. Is this a valid behavior?

[nikoulai]

Hi
Thanks for reaching out.

I believe past maintainers thought, number was more valuable this way.

I don't think this will change, since it's not a critical issue, and will lead to a breaking change for the library. However, this issue is solved in 4.x ( by passing the DataFormat of your choice for returning values), which, is in alpha currently.