What is Integer and decimal casts in Laravel, and what role does it play in a real application?

What is Integer and decimal casts in Laravel, and what role does it play in a real application? In Laravel, integer and decimal casts should be understood as part of a larger application architecture rather than as an isolated API call. Numeric casts help keep application-level types consistent when database values are strings or decimal representations. A strong understanding includes its purpose, the layer where it belongs, the data or request flow it affects, and the situations where another mechanism may be more appropriate. Practical context: Eloquent attribute casting converts selected model attributes into useful PHP types or structures when models are read and written. The specific focus here is integer and decimal casts: Numeric casts help keep application-level types consistent when database values are strings or decimal representations. This question is designed to test not only terminology, but also how the concept fits into Laravel's request, application, database, security, or deployment workflow.