Try to fix #479

Author: cowtowncoder

src/main/java/com/fasterxml/jackson/databind/deser/std/StringArrayDeserializer.java

@@ -63,7 +63,7 @@ public String[] deserialize(JsonParser jp, DeserializationContext ctxt) throws I
             if (t == JsonToken.VALUE_STRING) {
                 value = jp.getText();
             } else if (t == JsonToken.VALUE_NULL) {
-                value = _elementDeserializer.getNullValue();
+                value = null; // since we have established that '_elementDeserializer == null' earlier
             } else {
                 value = _parseString(jp, ctxt);
             }
@@ -92,7 +92,7 @@ protected final String[] _deserializeCustom(JsonParser jp, DeserializationContex
 
         while ((t = jp.nextToken()) != JsonToken.END_ARRAY) {
             // Ok: no need to convert Strings, but must recognize nulls
-            String value = (t == JsonToken.VALUE_NULL) ? null : deser.deserialize(jp, ctxt);
+            String value = (t == JsonToken.VALUE_NULL) ? deser.getNullValue() : deser.deserialize(jp, ctxt);
             if (ix >= chunk.length) {
                 chunk = buffer.appendCompletedChunk(chunk);
                 ix = 0;

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

@@ -20,12 +20,6 @@
 public class TestArrayDeserialization
     extends BaseMapTest
 {
-    /*
-    /**********************************************************
-    /* Helper classes
-    /**********************************************************
-     */
-
     public final static class Bean1
     {
         int _x, _y;
@@ -252,7 +246,7 @@ public void testStringArray() throws Exception
             "a", "b", "abcd", "", "???", "\"quoted\"", "lf: \n",
         };
         StringWriter sw = new StringWriter();
-        JsonGenerator jg = new JsonFactory().createGenerator(sw);
+        JsonGenerator jg = MAPPER.getFactory().createGenerator(sw);
         jg.writeStartArray();
         for (String str : STRS) {
             jg.writeString(str);
@@ -267,6 +261,12 @@ public void testStringArray() throws Exception
         for (int i = 0; i < STRS.length; ++i) {
             assertEquals(STRS[i], result[i]);
         }
+
+        // [#479]: null handling was busted in 2.4.0
+        result = MAPPER.readValue(" [ null ]", String[].class);
+        assertNotNull(result);
+        assertEquals(1, result.length);
+        assertNull(result[0]);
     }
 
     public void testCharArray() throws Exception