Interface AnnotationTarget

All Known Subinterfaces:
ArrayType, ClassInfo, ClassType, DeclarationInfo, FieldInfo, MethodInfo, PackageInfo, ParameterInfo, ParameterizedType, PrimitiveType, RecordComponentInfo, Type, TypeVariable, VoidType, WildcardType

public interface AnnotationTarget
An annotation target is anything that can be annotated. That is:
  • a declaration, such as a class, a method, a field, etc.
  • a type, such as the type of a method parameter, the type of a field, a type argument, a type parameter, present in a declaration of a generic class or method, etc.
The hasAnnotation, annotation, repeatableAnnotation and annotations methods may be used to obtain information about annotations present on this annotation target. The phrase "present on this annotation target" means: either the annotation is declared or implicitly declared directly on this annotation target, or this annotation target is a class declaration and the annotation is inherited from a superclass.

Note that if more than one annotation of a repeatable annotation type is declared on an annotation target, only an implicitly declared container annotation is present on the annotation target; the originally declared annotations are not. If exactly one annotation of a repeatable annotation type is declared on an annotation target, that annotation is present.

Annotations are represented as AnnotationInfo, so that implementations of this interface are not required to instantiate the annotation type.

Implementations of this interface are required to define the equals and hashCode methods. Implementations of this interface are encouraged to define the toString method such that it returns a text resembling the corresponding Java™ syntax.

There is no guarantee that any particular construct, represented by an implementation of this interface, will always be represented by the same object. That includes natural singletons such as the java.lang.Object class declaration, or the void pseudo-type. Instances should always be compared using equals.

Since:
4.0
  • Method Details

    • isDeclaration

      boolean isDeclaration()
      Returns whether this annotation target is a declaration.
      Returns:
      true if this is a declaration, false otherwise
    • isType

      boolean isType()
      Returns whether this annotation target is a type.
      Returns:
      true if this is a type, false otherwise
    • asDeclaration

      DeclarationInfo asDeclaration()
      Returns this annotation target as a declaration.
      Returns:
      this declaration, never null
      Throws:
      IllegalStateException - if isDeclaration() returns false
    • asType

      Type asType()
      Returns this annotation target as a type.
      Returns:
      this type, never null
      Throws:
      IllegalStateException - if isType() returns false
    • hasAnnotation

      boolean hasAnnotation(Class<? extends Annotation> annotationType)
      Returns whether an annotation of given type is present on this annotation target.
      Parameters:
      annotationType - the annotation type, must not be null
      Returns:
      true if given annotation type is present on this annotation target, false otherwise
    • hasAnnotation

      boolean hasAnnotation(Predicate<AnnotationInfo> predicate)
      Returns whether given predicate matches any annotation present on this annotation target.
      Parameters:
      predicate - annotation predicate, must not be null
      Returns:
      true if given predicate matches any annotation present on this annotation target, false otherwise.
    • annotation

      <T extends Annotation> AnnotationInfo annotation(Class<T> annotationType)
      Returns an annotation of given type, if it is present on this annotation target. Returns null if no such annotation is present.
      Type Parameters:
      T - the annotation generic type
      Parameters:
      annotationType - the annotation type, must not be null
      Returns:
      the AnnotationInfo or null if no such annotation is present
    • repeatableAnnotation

      <T extends Annotation> Collection<AnnotationInfo> repeatableAnnotation(Class<T> annotationType)
      Returns a collection of annotations of given repeatable annotationType that are present on this annotation target. Returns an empty collection if no such annotation is present.

      For the purpose of this method, annotations in the value member of a container annotation, as defined using @Repeatable, are considered to be present on the annotation target on which the container annotation is present.

      Type Parameters:
      T - the annotation generic type
      Parameters:
      annotationType - the @Repeatable annotation type, must not be null
      Returns:
      immutable collection of AnnotationInfo, never null
    • annotations

      Returns a collection of all annotations present on this annotation target that match given predicate. Returns an empty collection if no such annotation is present.
      Parameters:
      predicate - annotation predicate, must not be null
      Returns:
      immutable collection of AnnotationInfo, never null
    • annotations

      Collection<AnnotationInfo> annotations()
      Returns a collection of all annotations present on this annotation target. Returns an empty collection if no annotation is present.
      Returns:
      immutable collection of AnnotationInfo, never null