diff --git a/protected/java/test/org/broadinstitute/sting/gatk/walkers/variantutils/CombineVariantsIntegrationTest.java b/protected/java/test/org/broadinstitute/sting/gatk/walkers/variantutils/CombineVariantsIntegrationTest.java
index 66bc74caa..2eeb9221e 100644
--- a/protected/java/test/org/broadinstitute/sting/gatk/walkers/variantutils/CombineVariantsIntegrationTest.java
+++ b/protected/java/test/org/broadinstitute/sting/gatk/walkers/variantutils/CombineVariantsIntegrationTest.java
@@ -194,7 +194,7 @@ public class CombineVariantsIntegrationTest extends WalkerTest {
                         " --excludeNonVariants -combineAnnotations -setKey null" +
                         " -L 20:10,000,000-10,001,000", b37KGReference),
                 1,
-                Arrays.asList("2e15db35359144683f1e58e147362679"));
+                Arrays.asList("0413f0725fc5ec3a4f1ee246f6cb3a2a"));
         cvExecuteTest("combineSingleSamplePipelineGVCF", spec, true);
     }
 
diff --git a/public/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/utils/variant/GATKVariantContextUtils.java b/public/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/utils/variant/GATKVariantContextUtils.java
index e8c438a53..11cd27a9f 100644
--- a/public/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/utils/variant/GATKVariantContextUtils.java
+++ b/public/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/utils/variant/GATKVariantContextUtils.java
@@ -891,7 +891,11 @@ public class GATKVariantContextUtils {
                     }
                     try {
                         final String stringValue = value.toString();
-                        values.add(stringValue.contains(".") ? Double.parseDouble(stringValue) : Integer.parseInt(stringValue));
+                        // Branch to avoid unintentional, implicit type conversions that occur with the ? operator.
+                        if (stringValue.contains("."))
+                            values.add(Double.parseDouble(stringValue));
+                        else 
+                            values.add(Integer.parseInt(stringValue));
                     } catch (NumberFormatException e) {
                         badAnnotation = true;
                     }