Is there a way to explicitly change a column type in Power Query?

[WanderingBI]

Suppose I create a table:

let
  tableA = #table(
    {"Test"}, 
    {
      {1 as number}, 
      {"2" as text}
    }
  )
in
  tableA

Then I check the column type of "Test" with Table.Schema() and see that the "Test" column type is any.

tableASchema = Table.Schema(tableA)

Is there a way to change the column type to number ?

I expect the following output:

If this is not possible, is there a some language architecture background to why this is so? What leads a column type to be set?

To clarify, I do not want to convert the original data types of the values in the column. I want to change the column type directly to impose that the values in the column must conform to the data type of the column.

[AlienSx · Accepted solution]

to create table you want with #table 

let
  tableA = #table(
    type table [Test = Int64.Type], 
    {
      {1 as number}, 
      {"2" as text}
    }
  )
in
  tableA

to change type of existing table 

Value.ReplaceType(tableA, type table [Test = Int64.Type])

background: read Ben Gribaudo's PQ M Primer, type system part. 

[WanderingBI]

A bit peculiar is the output that I actually get from this:

The value in row 1 is actually "1" of type text. The Power Query GUI shows it left-aligned as it is a text. The value does not conform to the column type of number, however no error is thrown.

This is coherent with the explanation from the link you posted:

"However, the values in the column will still be of type number; “whole number” (technically, Int64) is just a claim, not a true data type from the mashup engine’s perspective."

[WanderingBI]

Thank you so much, that was exactly what I was looking for. The background link is also very valuable.