JavaTM 2 Platform
Standard Ed. 5.0

java.lang.annotation
Interface Annotation

All Known Implementing Classes:
Deprecated, Documented, Inherited, Override, Retention, SuppressWarnings, Target

public interface Annotation

The common interface extended by all annotation types. Note that an interface that manually extends this one does not define an annotation type. Also note that this interface does not itself define an annotation type.

Since:
1.5

Method Summary
 Class<? extends Annotation> annotationType()
          Returns the annotation type of this annotation.
 boolean equals(Object obj)
          Returns true if the specified object represents an annotation that is logically equivalent to this one.
 int hashCode()
          Returns the hash code of this annotation, as defined below:
 String toString()
          Returns a string representation of this annotation.
 

Method Detail

equals

boolean equals(Object obj)
Returns true if the specified object represents an annotation that is logically equivalent to this one. In other words, returns true if the specified object is an instance of the same annotation type as this instance, all of whose members are equal to the corresponding member of this annotation, as defined below:

Overrides:
equals in class Object
Parameters:
obj - the reference object with which to compare.
Returns:
true if the specified object represents an annotation that is logically equivalent to this one, otherwise false
See Also:
Object.hashCode(), Hashtable

hashCode

int hashCode()
Returns the hash code of this annotation, as defined below:

The hash code of an annotation is the sum of the hash codes of its members (including those with default values), as defined below: The hash code of an annotation member is (127 times the hash code of the member-name as computed by String.hashCode()) XOR the hash code of the member-value, as defined below:

The hash code of a member-value depends on its type:

Overrides:
hashCode in class Object
Returns:
the hash code of this annotation
See Also:
Object.equals(java.lang.Object), Hashtable

toString

String toString()
Returns a string representation of this annotation. The details of the representation are implementation-dependent, but the following may be regarded as typical:
   @com.acme.util.Name(first=Alfred, middle=E., last=Neuman)
 

Overrides:
toString in class Object
Returns:
a string representation of this annotation

annotationType

Class<? extends Annotation> annotationType()
Returns the annotation type of this annotation.


JavaTM 2 Platform
Standard Ed. 5.0

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For further API reference and developer documentation, see Java 2 SDK SE Developer Documentation. That documentation contains more detailed, developer-targeted descriptions, with conceptual overviews, definitions of terms, workarounds, and working code examples.

Copyright 2004 Sun Microsystems, Inc. All rights reserved. Use is subject to license terms. Also see the documentation redistribution policy.