How to parse "{}" empty value (into String)

Question

Given json:

{
  "name" : {}
}

I would like to parse it into the following Java object using com.fasterxml.jackson:

class MyClass {
  private String name;
}

If you try it, you will get:

com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.exc.MismatchedInputException: Cannot deserialize instance of `java.lang.String` out of START_OBJECT token

Is there any way to configure the jackson deserializer (globally for best) it can handle these empty objects as nulls without changing the attribute type (from String)?

Answer 1

To do that you can write your own deserializer. Following this you extend the StdDeserializer and register it in the class.

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Author edit:

I have used following deserializer for strings and it's working fine, thanks:

public class EmptyObjectDeserializer extends StdDeserializer<String> {

    public EmptyObjectDeserializer() {
        this(null);
    }

    public EmptyObjectDeserializer(Class<?> vc) {
        super(vc);
    }

    @Override
    public String deserialize(JsonParser jp, DeserializationContext ctxt) throws IOException, JsonProcessingException {
        JsonNode node = jp.getCodec().readTree(jp);
        return node.asText("");
    }
}