public class Cell {
    private String stringVal;
    private Object valVal;
    private Transformer<?> trans;
    private Class<?> valClass;

    public String getStringVal(){
        return stringVal;
    }

    public boolean setStringVal(){
        //this not only set the value, but checks it with the transformer that it meets constraints and updates valVal too
    }

    public <T> T getValVal(){
        return (T) valVal;
        //This works, but I don't understand why
    }
}

public <T> T getTypedElem() {
    T output = (T) this.typedElem;
    System.out.println(output.getClass());
    return output;
}

public <T> T getTypedElem() {
    T output = null;
    try {
        output = (T) this.typedElem;
        System.out.println(output.getClass());
    } catch (ClassCastException e) {
        System.out.println("class cast caught");
        return null;
    }
    return output;
}

public <T> T getValue(Class<T> cls) {
    if (valVal == null) return null;
    else {
        if (cls.isInstance(valVal)) return cls.cast(valVal);
        return null;
    }
}

public Object getValVal() {
    return valVal;
}

public <T> void setObject(Transformer<T> transformer, T object) {}

class Cell {
  String val
  def valVal
}

def cell = new Cell(val:"10.0")
cell.valVal = cell.val as BigDecimal
BigDecimal valVal = cell.valVal
assert valVal.class == BigDecimal
assert valVal == 10.0

cell.val = "20"
cell.valVal = cell.val as Integer
Integer valVal2 = cell.valVal
assert valVal2.class == Integer
assert valVal2 == 20