Enum RetentionPolicy

All Implemented Interfaces:
Serializable, Comparable<RetentionPolicy> 
public enum RetentionPolicy
extends Enum<RetentionPolicy>

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

Since:
1.5

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

All Methods Static Methods Concrete Methods
Modifier and Type Method Description
static RetentionPolicy valueOf​(String name)

Returns the enum constant of this type with the specified name.
static RetentionPolicy[] values()

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

Methods declared in class java.lang.Enum

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

Methods declared in class java.lang.Object

getClass, notify, notifyAll, wait, wait, wait

Enum Constant Detail

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 Detail

values

public static RetentionPolicy[] values()

Returns an array containing the constants of this enum type, in the order they are declared. This method may be used to iterate over the constants as follows: 

for (RetentionPolicy c : RetentionPolicy.values())
    System.out.println(c);
Returns:
an array containing the constants of this enum type, in the order they are declared

valueOf

public static RetentionPolicy valueOf​(String name)

Returns the enum constant of this type with the specified name. The string must match exactly an identifier used to declare an enum constant in this type. (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 type has no constant with the specified name
NullPointerException - if the argument is null