/*
* @(#)AnnotatedElement.java 1.5 05/11/17
*
* Copyright 2006 Sun Microsystems, Inc. All rights reserved.
* SUN PROPRIETARY/CONFIDENTIAL. Use is subject to license terms.
*/
package java.lang.reflect;
import java.lang.annotation.Annotation;
/**
* Represents an annotated element of the program currently running in this
* VM. This interface allows annotations to be read reflectively. All
* annotations returned by methods in this interface are immutable and
* serializable. It is permissible for the caller to modify the
* arrays returned by accessors for array-valued enum members; it will
* have no affect on the arrays returned to other callers.
*
* <p>If an annotation returned by a method in this interface contains
* (directly or indirectly) a {@link Class}-valued member referring to
* a class that is not accessible in this VM, attempting to read the class
* by calling the relevant Class-returning method on the returned annotation
* will result in a {@link TypeNotPresentException}.
*
* <p>Similarly, attempting to read an enum-valued member will result in
* a {@link EnumConstantNotPresentException} if the enum constant in the
* annotation is no longer present in the enum type.
*
* <p>Finally, Attempting to read a member whose definition has evolved
* incompatibly will result in a {@link
* java.lang.annotation.AnnotationTypeMismatchException} or an
* {@link java.lang.annotation.IncompleteAnnotationException}.
*
* @since 1.5
* @author Josh Bloch
*/
public interface AnnotatedElement {
/**
* Returns true if an annotation for the specified type
* is present on this element, else false. This method
* is designed primarily for convenient access to marker annotations.
*
* @param annotationClass the Class object corresponding to the
* annotation type
* @return true if an annotation for the specified annotation
* type is present on this element, else false
* @throws NullPointerException if the given annotation class is null
* @since 1.5
*/
boolean isAnnotationPresent(Class<? extends Annotation> annotationClass);
/**
* Returns this element's annotation for the specified type if
* such an annotation is present, else null.
*
* @param annotationClass the Class object corresponding to the
* annotation type
* @return this element's annotation for the specified annotation type if
* present on this element, else null
* @throws NullPointerException if the given annotation class is null
* @since 1.5
*/
<T extends Annotation> T getAnnotation(Class<T> annotationClass);
/**
* Returns all annotations present on this element. (Returns an array
* of length zero if this element has no annotations.) The caller of
* this method is free to modify the returned array; it will have no
* effect on the arrays returned to other callers.
*
* @return all annotations present on this element
* @since 1.5
*/
Annotation[] getAnnotations();
/**
* Returns all annotations that are directly present on this
* element. Unlike the other methods in this interface, this method
* ignores inherited annotations. (Returns an array of length zero if
* no annotations are directly present on this element.) The caller of
* this method is free to modify the returned array; it will have no
* effect on the arrays returned to other callers.
*
* @return All annotations directly present on this element
* @since 1.5
*/
Annotation[] getDeclaredAnnotations();
}