JsonParser#getNumberType when the current token is non-numeric throws an exception instead of returning null

[CrazySqueak]

Context

I wrote a deserializer for colours which accepts them both as a raw integer (0xRRGGBB) or as a string ("name" or "#RRGGBB").

I assumed that, as mentioned in the javadoc, getNumberType would return a non-null number constant if the current token is a number, and null if it were a string or something else, thus making it suitable for discerning between the two options.

Expected Behaviour

JsonParser#getNumberType returns null for a non-numeric token (in this case, of type VALUE_STRING), as stated by the documentation.

Actual Behaviour

It throws an exception: com.fasterxml.jackson.core.JsonParseException: Current token (VALUE_STRING) not numeric, can not use numeric value accessors.

From what I can see, this is because ParserBase#getNumberType() calls _parseNumericValue to determine what number it's looking at, which always expects the current token to be numeric and throws an exception if it isn't.

Full Traceback

com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.JsonMappingException: Current token (VALUE_STRING) not numeric, can not use numeric value accessors
 at [Source: "{"colour": "#123456"}"; line: 1, column: 13] (through reference chain: my.project.Test2["colour"])
        at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.JsonMappingException.wrapWithPath(JsonMappingException.java:392)
        at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.JsonMappingException.wrapWithPath(JsonMappingException.java:351)
        at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.deser.BeanDeserializerBase.wrapAndThrow(BeanDeserializerBase.java:1821)
        at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.deser.BeanDeserializer._deserializeWithErrorWrapping(BeanDeserializer.java:566)
        at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.deser.BeanDeserializer.deserializeUsingPropertyBasedWithUnwrapped(BeanDeserializer.java:848)
        at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.deser.BeanDeserializer.deserializeWithUnwrapped(BeanDeserializer.java:703)
        at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.deser.BeanDeserializer.deserializeFromObject(BeanDeserializer.java:347)
        at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.deser.BeanDeserializer.deserialize(BeanDeserializer.java:185)
        at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.deser.std.CollectionDeserializer._deserializeFromArray(CollectionDeserializer.java:355)
        at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.deser.std.CollectionDeserializer.deserialize(CollectionDeserializer.java:244)
        at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.deser.std.CollectionDeserializer.deserialize(CollectionDeserializer.java:28)
        at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.deser.SettableBeanProperty.deserialize(SettableBeanProperty.java:542)
        at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.deser.BeanDeserializer._deserializeWithErrorWrapping(BeanDeserializer.java:564)
        at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.deser.BeanDeserializer._deserializeUsingPropertyBased(BeanDeserializer.java:439)
        at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.deser.BeanDeserializerBase.deserializeFromObjectUsingNonDefault(BeanDeserializerBase.java:1405)
        at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.deser.BeanDeserializer.deserializeFromObject(BeanDeserializer.java:352)
        at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.deser.BeanDeserializer.deserialize(BeanDeserializer.java:185)
        at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.deser.DefaultDeserializationContext.readRootValue(DefaultDeserializationContext.java:323)
        at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ObjectMapper._readValue(ObjectMapper.java:4650)
        at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ObjectMapper.readValue(ObjectMapper.java:2831)
        at com.fasterxml.jackson.core.JsonParser.readValueAs(JsonParser.java:2277)
        at my.project.Test2$JsonDeserializer.deserialize(<snip>)
        at my.project.Test2$JsonDeserializer.deserialize(<snip>)
        at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.deser.SettableBeanProperty.deserialize(SettableBeanProperty.java:542)
        at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.deser.BeanDeserializer._deserializeWithErrorWrapping(BeanDeserializer.java:564)
        at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.deser.BeanDeserializer._deserializeUsingPropertyBased(BeanDeserializer.java:439)
        at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.deser.BeanDeserializerBase.deserializeFromObjectUsingNonDefault(BeanDeserializerBase.java:1405)
        at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.deser.BeanDeserializer.deserializeFromObject(BeanDeserializer.java:352)
        at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.deser.BeanDeserializer.deserialize(BeanDeserializer.java:185)
        at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.deser.DefaultDeserializationContext.readRootValue(DefaultDeserializationContext.java:323)
        at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ObjectMapper._readMapAndClose(ObjectMapper.java:4674)
        at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ObjectMapper.readValue(ObjectMapper.java:3629)
        at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ObjectMapper.readValue(ObjectMapper.java:3597)
        at my.project.Test2.fromMessage(<snip>)
        ... 5 more
Caused by: com.fasterxml.jackson.core.JsonParseException: Current token (VALUE_STRING) not numeric, can not use numeric value accessors
 at [Source: "{"colour": "#123456"}"; line: 1, column: 13]
        at com.fasterxml.jackson.core.JsonParser._constructError(JsonParser.java:2391)
        at com.fasterxml.jackson.core.base.ParserMinimalBase._reportError(ParserMinimalBase.java:740)
        at com.fasterxml.jackson.core.base.ParserBase._parseNumericValue(ParserBase.java:835)
        at com.fasterxml.jackson.core.base.ParserBase.getNumberType(ParserBase.java:660)
        at my.project.ColourDeserializer.deserialize(<snip>)
        at my.project.ColourDeserializer.deserialize(<snip>)
        at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.deser.SettableBeanProperty.deserialize(SettableBeanProperty.java:542)
        at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.deser.BeanDeserializer._deserializeWithErrorWrapping(BeanDeserializer.java:564)
        ... 35 more

Version

com.fasterxml.jackson.core:jackson-annotations:2.19.0
com.fasterxml.jackson.core:jackson-core:2.19.0
com.fasterxml.jackson.core:jackson-databind:2.19.0 

[pjfanning]

Changing code behaviour tends to break stuff for other users. I don't think there is a good reason to change the behaviour here. It is perfectly justifiable to throw an exception in getNumberType if the value is not a number.

Even if we did change the behaviour, you would have to wait for a non patch release and this is likely to be many months away. Are you willing to wait multiple months, maybe 6 for the 2.20.0 release?

The Parser API has a currentToken() method that returns a JsonToken enum value that you can check.

[pjfanning]

You call also try getText which I think will return the number as a string regardless of whether it appears as a number or as a string in the input doc. You can then parse the string.

If you are trying to get Jackson to parse hexadecimal numbers for you, I am not at all sure if Jackson has this built-in. It is not part of the JSON spec.

[CrazySqueak]

I've already found a different method, but I figured that I'd report this so that the behaviour can be documented. I agree that updating the documentation to match the current behaviour is better for backwards compatibility (Hyrum's law and all that).

[pjfanning]

Thanks @CrazySqueak - I missed the bit about the javadoc. It does indeed say that the method should return null. So maybe this is a bug. There may be a justification to change the behaviour to match the documented behaviour but still this is not likely to appear until 2.20.0.

https://www.javadoc.io/doc/com.fasterxml.jackson.core/jackson-core/latest/com/fasterxml/jackson/core/JsonParser.html#getNumberType--

[pjfanning]

@cowtowncoder I had a look at ParserBase.getNumberType and it looks like to make that method match its Javadoc and return nulls for non-number types that we would have to do something like write a new method to replace _parseNumericValue for this use case. We could copy/paste _parseNumericValue and make the copy not throw an exception for certain token types like VALUE_STRING.

It might be easier just to change the Javadoc to remove the bit about returning nulls for non-number types.