id	summary	reporter	owner	description	type	status	priority	milestone	component	version	severity	resolution	keywords	cc
5381	type mismatch between is_term and get_term_by	tellyworth	anonymous	"get_term_by() and similar functions return a row that includes the term_id as a numeric string.  is_term() requires that a term_id be passed in as an int; a numeric string will fail.

I don't know what the solution is but this seems like a likely cause of bugs.  Code that looks like it ought to work fails:

{{{
	$term_id = get_term_by('name', $term, $taxonomy);
	if ( is_term($term_id) ) ... // fails because is_term returns false
}}}

test_is_term_type() in http://svn.automattic.com/wordpress-tests/wp-testcase/test_includes_taxonomy.php reproduces the problem.

There are other related type inconsistencies in taxonomy.php also - for example, is_term() returns a 0, NULL, term ID, WP_Error object or row object depending on the context and circumstances, which makes handling the return result difficult.  Mostly due I think to the functions being overloaded to magically handle both term ids and names.
 "	defect (bug)	closed	normal		General		normal	duplicate