identify data type

jow can i identify the data type of a variable that is returned by the getParameter method?

suppose there is an int myint=5;

that is submited from an html form, or sent by another page.

i get the variable with request.getParameter("myint")

and ofcourse put it in a String.

How can i check what it was before?

[346 byte] By [akisa] at [2007-10-3 5:25:27]