Enum Class RetentionPolicy

java.lang.Object

java.lang.Enum<RetentionPolicy>

java.lang.annotation.RetentionPolicy

All Implemented Interfaces:

Serializable, Comparable<RetentionPolicy>, Constable

public enum RetentionPolicy
extends Enum<RetentionPolicy>

Annotation retention policy. The constants of this enumerated class describe the various policies for retaining annotations. They are used in conjunction with the Retention meta-annotation interface to specify how long annotations are to be retained.

Since:

1.5

Nested Class Summary

Nested classes/interfaces declared in class Enum

Enum.EnumDesc<E>

Enum Constant Summary

Enum Constants

Enum Constant	Description
CLASS	Annotations are to be recorded in the class file by the compiler but need not be retained by the VM at run time.
RUNTIME	Annotations are to be recorded in the class file by the compiler and retained by the VM at run time, so they may be read reflectively.
SOURCE	Annotations are to be discarded by the compiler.

Method Summary

Modifier and Type	Method	Description
static RetentionPolicy	valueOf(String name)	Returns the enum constant of this class with the specified name.
static RetentionPolicy[]	values()	Returns an array containing the constants of this enum class, in the order they are declared.

Methods declared in class Enum

clone, compareTo, describeConstable, equals, finalize, getDeclaringClass, hashCode, name, ordinal, toString, valueOf

Methods declared in class Object

getClass, notify, notifyAll, wait, wait, wait

Enum Constant Details

SOURCE

public static final RetentionPolicy SOURCE

Annotations are to be discarded by the compiler.

CLASS

public static final RetentionPolicy CLASS

Annotations are to be recorded in the class file by the compiler but need not be retained by the VM at run time. This is the default behavior.

RUNTIME

public static final RetentionPolicy RUNTIME

Annotations are to be recorded in the class file by the compiler and retained by the VM at run time, so they may be read reflectively.

See Also:

• AnnotatedElement

Method Details

values

public static RetentionPolicy[] values()

Returns an array containing the constants of this enum class, in the order they are declared.

Returns:

an array containing the constants of this enum class, in the order they are declared

valueOf

public static RetentionPolicy valueOf(String name)

Returns the enum constant of this class with the specified name. The string must match exactly an identifier used to declare an enum constant in this class. (Extraneous whitespace characters are not permitted.)

Parameters:

name - the name of the enum constant to be returned.

Returns:

the enum constant with the specified name

Throws:

IllegalArgumentException - if this enum class has no constant with the specified name

NullPointerException - if the argument is null