private static boolean bothAreNumeric(final Val a, final Val b) {
        return a != null
               && b != null
               && a.hasNumericValue()
               && b.hasNumericValue();
    }
This is to deal with the

@param val1
@param val2
@return
stroom-query/stroom-query-language/src/main/java/stroom/query/language/functions/ValComparators.java