docs: public static Object getObjectFromString(VoltType type, String value)
      throws ParseException
      {
          Object ret = null;
          switch (type) {
              // NOTE: All runtime integer parameters are actually Longs,so we will have problems
              // if we actually try to convert the object to one of the smaller numeric sizes
  
              // --------------------------------
              // INTEGERS
              // --------------------------------
              case TINYINT:
                  //ret = Byte.valueOf(value);
                  //break;
              case SMALLINT:
                  //ret = Short.valueOf(value);
                  //break;
              case INTEGER:
                  //ret = Integer.valueOf(value);
                  //break;
              case BIGINT:
                  ret = Long.valueOf(value);
                  break;
              // --------------------------------
              // FLOATS
              // --------------------------------
              case FLOAT:
                  ret = Double.valueOf(value);
                  break;
              // --------------------------------
              // STRINGS
              // --------------------------------
              case STRING:
                  ret = value;
                  break;
  
              case DECIMAL:
              case VARBINARY:
                  if (value != null) {
                      throw new RuntimeException("Only NULL default values for DECIMAL " +
                              "and VARBINARY columns are supported right now");
                  }
                  break;
              // --------------------------------
              // TIMESTAMP
              // --------------------------------
              case TIMESTAMP: {
                  // Support either long values (microseconds since epoch) or timestamp strings.
                  try {
                      // Try to parse it as a long first.
                      ret = new TimestampType(Long.parseLong(value));
                  }
                  catch (NumberFormatException e) {
                      // It failed to parse as a long - parse it as a timestamp string.
                      Date date = new SimpleDateFormat("EEE MMM dd HH:mm:ss zzz yyyy").parse(value);
                      ret = new TimestampType(date.getTime() * 1000);
                  }
                  break;
              }
              // --------------------------------
              // INVALID
              // --------------------------------
              default:
                  LOG.severe("ERROR: Unable to get object from string for invalid ValueType '" + type + "'");
          }
          return (ret);
      }