/*
* Copyright (c) 2013, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
* DO NOT ALTER OR REMOVE COPYRIGHT NOTICES OR THIS FILE HEADER.
*
* This code is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
* under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2 only, as
* published by the Free Software Foundation. Oracle designates this
* particular file as subject to the "Classpath" exception as provided
* by Oracle in the LICENSE file that accompanied this code.
*
* This code is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT
* ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or
* FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License
* version 2 for more details (a copy is included in the LICENSE file that
* accompanied this code).
*
* You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License version
* 2 along with this work; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation,
* Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA.
*
* Please contact Oracle, 500 Oracle Parkway, Redwood Shores, CA 94065 USA
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*/
package javax.lang.model;
import java.lang.annotation.Annotation;
import java.util.List;
import javax.lang.model.element.*;
/**
* Represent a construct that can have annotations.
*
* When annotations are on an {@linkplain element.Element element},
* the are on a <em>declaration</em>. When annotations are on a {@linkplain
* type.TypeMirror type}, they are on a <em>use</em> of a type.
*
* @since 1.8
*/
public interface AnnotatedConstruct {
/**
* Returns the annotations that are directly present on this
* element or type use.
*
* @return the annotations directly present on this element or type use;
* an empty list if there are none
*/
List<? extends AnnotationMirror> getAnnotationMirrors();
/**
* Returns this element's or type use's annotation for the
* specified type if such an annotation is present, else {@code
* null}. The annotation may be either inherited or directly
* present on this element.
*
* <p> The annotation returned by this method could contain an element
* whose value is of type {@code Class}.
* This value cannot be returned directly: information necessary to
* locate and load a class (such as the class loader to use) is
* not available, and the class might not be loadable at all.
* Attempting to read a {@code Class} object by invoking the relevant
* method on the returned annotation
* will result in a {@link MirroredTypeException},
* from which the corresponding {@link TypeMirror} may be extracted.
* Similarly, attempting to read a {@code Class[]}-valued element
* will result in a {@link MirroredTypesException}.
*
* <blockquote>
* <i>Note:</i> This method is unlike others in this and related
* interfaces. It operates on runtime reflective information —
* representations of annotation types currently loaded into the
* VM — rather than on the representations defined by and used
* throughout these interfaces. Consequently, calling methods on
* the returned annotation object can throw many of the exceptions
* that can be thrown when calling methods on an annotation object
* returned by core reflection. This method is intended for
* callers that are written to operate on a known, fixed set of
* annotation types.
* </blockquote>
*
* @param <A> the annotation type
* @param annotationType the {@code Class} object corresponding to
* the annotation type
* @return this element's or type use's annotation for the
* specified annotation type if present on this element, else
* {@code null}
*
* @see #getAnnotationMirrors()
* @see java.lang.reflect.AnnotatedElement#getAnnotation
* @see EnumConstantNotPresentException
* @see AnnotationTypeMismatchException
* @see IncompleteAnnotationException
* @see MirroredTypeException
* @see MirroredTypesException
*/
<A extends Annotation> A getAnnotation(Class<A> annotationType);
/**
* Returns annotations that are <em>present</em> on this element or type use.
*
* If there are no annotations <em>present</em> on this element or type use,
* the return value is an array of length 0.
*
* The difference between this method and {@link #getAnnotation(Class)}
* is that this method detects if its argument is a <em>repeatable
* annotation type</em> (JLS 9.6), and if so, attempts to find one or more
* annotations of that type by "looking through" a container annotation.
*
* <p> The annotations returned by this method could contain an element
* whose value is of type {@code Class}.
* This value cannot be returned directly: information necessary to
* locate and load a class (such as the class loader to use) is
* not available, and the class might not be loadable at all.
* Attempting to read a {@code Class} object by invoking the relevant
* method on the returned annotation
* will result in a {@link MirroredTypeException},
* from which the corresponding {@link TypeMirror} may be extracted.
* Similarly, attempting to read a {@code Class[]}-valued element
* will result in a {@link MirroredTypesException}.
*
* <blockquote>
* <i>Note:</i> This method is unlike others in this and related
* interfaces. It operates on runtime reflective information —
* representations of annotation types currently loaded into the
* VM — rather than on the representations defined by and used
* throughout these interfaces. Consequently, calling methods on
* the returned annotation object can throw many of the exceptions
* that can be thrown when calling methods on an annotation object
* returned by core reflection. This method is intended for
* callers that are written to operate on a known, fixed set of
* annotation types.
* </blockquote>
*
* @param <A> the annotation type
* @param annotationType the {@code Class} object corresponding to
* the annotation type
* @return this element's annotations for the specified annotation
* type if present on this element, else an empty array
*
* @see #getAnnotationMirrors()
* @see #getAnnotation(java.lang.Class)
* @see java.lang.reflect.AnnotatedElement#getAnnotationsByType
* @see EnumConstantNotPresentException
* @see AnnotationTypeMismatchException
* @see IncompleteAnnotationException
* @see MirroredTypeException
* @see MirroredTypesException
*/
<A extends Annotation> A[] getAnnotationsByType(Class<A> annotationType);
}