Spring Add convert(Object, TypeDescriptor) method to ConversionService

At the moment there is the method

Object convert(@Nullable Object source, @Nullable TypeDescriptor sourceType, TypeDescriptor targetType);

And usually sourceType can be deduced from source and it is unnecessary to specify the sourceType. Please add a new convert method which will remove necessity to specify the type descriptor if it is the same as source.

Object convert(@Nullable Object source, TypeDescriptor targetType) {
    return convert(source, TypeDescriptor.forObject(source), targetType);
}

Comment From: sbrannen

Does the existing <T> T convert(@Nullable Object source, Class<T> targetType) method not meet your needs in terms of convenience?

Comment From: raderio

Can you please advise how to use it when I need to convert an object to a List<T>?

Comment From: dPechman42

Would it be possible for me to work on this?

Comment From: sbrannen

Can you please advise how to use it when I need to convert an object to a List<T>?

You would need a target TypeDescriptor for that.

Comment From: sbrannen

Team Decision: assigned to the General Backlog to allow this issue to gain wider community interest.

Comment From: jhoeller

Since the Class-based methods can be seen as a convenience already (in comparison to the SpEL TypeConverter which just has the essential SPI methods) and since GenericConversionService has a convert(Object, TypeDescriptor) already, let's expose that method as a default method on the ConversionService interface for 6.1 now.