Evolution of Deprecated APIs and Their Replacements in Python Libraries

Gangqiang He; Guanping Xiao

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arXiv · 2609.32618

Evolution of Deprecated APIs and Their Replacements in Python Libraries

Gangqiang He·Guanping Xiao

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Abstract

Context: API deprecation is common in library evolution, but migration requires finding replacements and adapting calls. Prior studies examine deprecation, replacement identification, and client migration separately, leaving deprecated API-replacement API relationships across releases and lifecycle states insufficiently understood. Objective: We examine replacement locality, parameter-interface differences, changes in replacement rankings across versions, and post-deprecation lifecycles from source-definition and original-invocation perspectives. Method: We construct 830 maintainer-specified mappings from 33 Python libraries, covering classes, functions, and methods. We compare definitions, track similarity-based rankings under two migration scenarios, and identify lifecycle events through source inspection and release-by-release execution. Results: Same-module replacements account for 39.1%, 55.6%, and 79.9% of class, function, and method mappings, respectively. Most mappings have no parameter changes, but function mappings show more frequent and diverse changes. Rankings vary across releases and code representations, and the applicable methods agree on the overall trend in only about 60% of cases. Other-candidate effects are dominant or mixed in 49.0% of key versions. After deprecation, 56.4% of mappings retain the source definition and 68.6% retain an executable original invocation. Among 753 mappings with at least one observed ending event, 25.2% are source-first or invocation-first rather than same-release. Of these cases, 77.4% are source-first. Conclusions: Deprecated API-replacement API relationships depend on API granularity, release context, code representation, candidate competition, and lifecycle state. These results support evolution-aware replacement API recommendation and automated API migration.

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Gangqiang He, Guanping Xiao. 2026-09-26. Evolution of Deprecated APIs and Their Replacements in Python Libraries. https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.32618

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