Fix #4416: Deprecate JsonNode.asText(String)

release-notes/CREDITS-2.x

@@ -1752,3 +1752,7 @@ Jesper Blomquist (jebl01@github)
  * Contributed #4393: Deserialize `java.util.UUID` encoded as Base64 and base64Url with or
    without padding
   (2.17.0)
+
+András Péteri (apeteri@github)
+ * Suggested #4416: Deprecate `JsonNode.asText(String)`
+  (2.17.0)

release-notes/VERSION-2.x

@@ -45,6 +45,8 @@ Project: jackson-databind
 #4394: Better Base64 support for `java.util.UUIDs`
   without padding
  (fix contributed by Jesper B)
+#4416: Deprecate `JsonNode.asText(String)`
+ (suggested by András P)
 - JUnit5 upgraded to 5.10.1
 
 2.16.2 (not yet released)

src/main/java/com/fasterxml/jackson/databind/JsonNode.java

@@ -635,9 +635,16 @@ public byte[] binaryValue() throws IOException {
      * <code>defaultValue</code> in cases where null value would be returned;
      * either for missing nodes (trying to access missing property, or element
      * at invalid item for array) or explicit nulls.
+     *<p>
+     * NOTE: deprecated since 2.17 because {@link #asText()} very rarely returns
+     * {@code null} for any node types -- in fact, neither {@link MissingNode}
+     * nor {@code NullNode} return {@code null} from {@link #asText()}.
      *
      * @since 2.4
+     *
+     * @deprecated Since 2.17, to be removed from 3.0
      */
+    @Deprecated // @since 2.17
     public String asText(String defaultValue) {
         String str = asText();
         return (str == null) ? defaultValue : str;

src/test/java/com/fasterxml/jackson/databind/deser/CustomDeserializersTest.java

@@ -355,7 +355,7 @@ public NamedPoint deserialize(JsonParser p, DeserializationContext ctxt)
                 throws IOException
         {
             JsonNode tree = ctxt.readTree(p);
-            String name = tree.path("name").asText(null);
+            String name = tree.path("name").asText();
             Point point = ctxt.readTreeAsValue(tree.get("point"), Point.class);
             return new NamedPoint(name, point);
         }

src/test/java/com/fasterxml/jackson/databind/node/NumberNodesTest.java

@@ -82,7 +82,7 @@ public void testInt()
         assertEquals(BigInteger.ONE, n.bigIntegerValue());
         assertEquals("1", n.asText());
         // 2.4
-        assertEquals("1", n.asText("foo"));
+        assertEquals("1", n.asText());
 
         assertNodeNumbers(n, 1, 1.0);