PackageElement getPackageElement(CharSequence name)

Returns a package given its fully qualified name if the package is uniquely determinable in the environment. If running with modules, packages of the given name are searched in a two-stage process:

• find non-empty packages with the given name returned by getPackageElement(ModuleElement, CharSequence), where the provided ModuleSymbol is any root module,
• if the above yields an empty list, search all modules for observable packages with the given name

If this process leads to a list with a single element, the single element is returned, otherwise null is returned.

default PackageElement getPackageElement(ModuleElement module, CharSequence name)

Returns a package given its fully qualified name, as seen from the given module.

default Set<? extends PackageElement> getAllPackageElements(CharSequence name)

Returns all package elements with the given canonical name. There may be more than one package element with the same canonical name if the package elements are in different modules.

TypeElement getTypeElement(CharSequence name)

Returns a type element given its canonical name if the type element is uniquely determinable in the environment. If running with modules, type elements of the given name are searched in a two-stage process:

• find type elements with the given name returned by getTypeElement(ModuleElement, CharSequence), where the provided ModuleSymbol is any root module,
• if the above yields an empty list, search all modules for observable type elements with the given name

If this process leads to a list with a single element, the single element is returned, otherwise null is returned.

default TypeElement getTypeElement(ModuleElement module, CharSequence name)

Returns a type element given its canonical name, as seen from the given module.

default Set<? extends TypeElement> getAllTypeElements(CharSequence name)

Returns all type elements with the given canonical name. There may be more than one type element with the same canonical name if the type elements are in different modules.

default ModuleElement getModuleElement(CharSequence name)

Returns a module element given its fully qualified name. If the requested module cannot be found, null is returned. One situation where a module cannot be found is if the environment does not include modules, such as an annotation processing environment configured for a source version without modules.

default Set<? extends ModuleElement> getAllModuleElements()

Returns all module elements in the current environment. If no modules are present, an empty set is returned. One situation where no modules are present occurs when the environment does not include modules, such as an annotation processing environment configured for a source version without modules.

Map<? extends ExecutableElement,? extends AnnotationValue> getElementValuesWithDefaults(AnnotationMirror a)

Returns the values of an annotation's elements, including defaults.

String getDocComment(Element e)

Returns the text of the documentation ("Javadoc") comment of an element.

A documentation comment of an element is a comment that begins with "/**", ends with a separate "*/", and immediately precedes the element, ignoring white space. Therefore, a documentation comment contains at least three "*" characters. The text returned for the documentation comment is a processed form of the comment as it appears in source code. The leading "/**" and trailing "*/" are removed. For lines of the comment starting after the initial "/**", leading white space characters are discarded as are any consecutive "*" characters appearing after the white space or starting the line. The processed lines are then concatenated together (including line terminators) and returned.

boolean isDeprecated(Element e)

Returns true if the element is deprecated, false otherwise.

default Elements.Origin getOrigin(Element e)

Returns the origin of the given element.

Note that if this method returns EXPLICIT and the element was created from a class file, then the element may not, in fact, correspond to an explicitly declared construct in source code. This is due to limitations of the fidelity of the class file format in preserving information from source code. For example, at least some versions of the class file format do not preserve whether a constructor was explicitly declared by the programmer or was implicitly declared as the default constructor.

default Elements.Origin getOrigin(AnnotatedConstruct c, AnnotationMirror a)

Returns the origin of the given annotation mirror. An annotation mirror is mandated if it is an implicitly declared container annotation used to hold repeated annotations of a repeatable annotation interface.

Note that if this method returns EXPLICIT and the annotation mirror was created from a class file, then the element may not, in fact, correspond to an explicitly declared construct in source code. This is due to limitations of the fidelity of the class file format in preserving information from source code. For example, at least some versions of the class file format do not preserve whether an annotation was explicitly declared by the programmer or was implicitly declared as a container annotation.

default Elements.Origin getOrigin(ModuleElement m, ModuleElement.Directive directive)

Returns the origin of the given module directive.

Note that if this method returns EXPLICIT and the module directive was created from a class file, then the module directive may not, in fact, correspond to an explicitly declared construct in source code. This is due to limitations of the fidelity of the class file format in preserving information from source code. For example, at least some versions of the class file format do not preserve whether a uses directive was explicitly declared by the programmer or was added as a synthetic construct.

Note that an implementation may not be able to reliably determine the origin status of the directive if the directive is created from a class file due to limitations of the fidelity of the class file format in preserving information from source code.

default boolean isBridge(ExecutableElement e)

Returns true if the executable element is a bridge method, false otherwise.

Name getBinaryName(TypeElement type)

Returns the binary name of a type element.

PackageElement getPackageOf(Element e)

Returns the package of an element. The package of a package is itself. The package of a module is null. The package of a top-level class or interface is its enclosing package. Otherwise, the package of an element is equal to the package of the enclosing element.

default ModuleElement getModuleOf(Element e)

Returns the module of an element. The module of a module is itself. If a package has a module as its enclosing element, that module is the module of the package. If the enclosing element of a package is null, null is returned for the package's module. (One situation where a package may have a null module is if the environment does not include modules, such as an annotation processing environment configured for a source version without modules.) Otherwise, the module of an element is equal to the module of the package of the element.

List<? extends Element> getAllMembers(TypeElement type)

Returns all members of a type element, whether inherited or declared directly. For a class the result also includes its constructors, but not local or anonymous classes.

default TypeElement getOutermostTypeElement(Element e)

Returns the outermost type element an element is contained in if such a containing element exists; otherwise returns null. Modules and packages do not have a containing type element and therefore null is returned for those kinds of elements. A top-level class or interface is its own outermost type element.

List<? extends AnnotationMirror> getAllAnnotationMirrors(Element e)

Returns all annotations present on an element, whether directly present or present via inheritance.

Note that any annotations returned by this method are declaration annotations.

boolean hides(Element hider, Element hidden)

Tests whether one type, method, or field hides another.

boolean overrides(ExecutableElement overrider, ExecutableElement overridden, TypeElement type)

Tests whether one method, as a member of a given class or interface, overrides another method. When a non-abstract method overrides an abstract one, the former is also said to implement the latter. As implied by JLS 8.4.8.1, a method does not override itself. The overrides relation is irreflexive.

In the simplest and most typical usage, the value of the type parameter will simply be the class or interface directly enclosing overrider (the possibly-overriding method). For example, suppose m1 represents the method String.hashCode and m2 represents Object.hashCode. We can then ask whether m1 overrides m2 within the class String (it does):

assert elements.overrides(m1, m2, elements.getTypeElement("java.lang.String"));

A more interesting case can be illustrated by the following example in which a method in class A does not override a like-named method in interface B:

class A { public void m() {} }
interface B { void m(); }
...
m1 = ...; // A.m
m2 = ...; // B.m
assert ! elements.overrides(m1, m2, elements.getTypeElement("A"));

When viewed as a member of a third class C, however, the method in A does override the one in B:

class C extends A implements B {}
...
assert elements.overrides(m1, m2, elements.getTypeElement("C"));

String getConstantExpression(Object value)

Returns the text of a constant expression representing a primitive value or a string. The text returned is in a form suitable for representing the value in source code.

void printElements(Writer w, Element... elements)

Prints a representation of the elements to the given writer in the specified order. The main purpose of this method is for diagnostics. The exact format of the output is not specified and is subject to change.

Name getName(CharSequence cs)

Returns a name with the same sequence of characters as the argument.

boolean isFunctionalInterface(TypeElement type)

Returns true if the type element is a functional interface, false otherwise.

default boolean isAutomaticModule(ModuleElement module)

Returns true if the module element is an automatic module, false otherwise.

default RecordComponentElement recordComponentFor(ExecutableElement accessor)

Returns the record component for the given accessor. Returns null if the given method is not a record component accessor.

default boolean isCanonicalConstructor(ExecutableElement e)

Returns true if the executable element can be determined to be a canonical constructor of a record, false otherwise. Note that in some cases there may be insufficient information to determine if a constructor is a canonical constructor, such as if the executable element is built backed by a class file. In such cases, false is returned.

default boolean isCompactConstructor(ExecutableElement e)

Returns true if the executable element can be determined to be a compact constructor of a record, false otherwise. By definition, a compact constructor is also a canonical constructor. Note that in some cases there may be insufficient information to determine if a constructor is a compact constructor, such as if the executable element is built backed by a class file. In such cases, false is returned.

default JavaFileObject getFileObjectOf(Element e)

Returns the file object for this element or null if there is no such file object.

The returned file object is for the reference representation of the information used to construct the element. For example, if during compilation or annotation processing, a source file for class Foo is compiled into a class file, the file object returned for the element representing Foo would be for the source file and not for the class file.

An implementation may choose to not support the functionality of this method, in which case UnsupportedOperationException is thrown.

In the context of annotation processing, a non-null value is returned if the element was included as part of the initial inputs or the containing file was created during the run of the annotation processing tool. Otherwise, a null may be returned. In annotation processing, if a class file is created, that class file can serve as the reference representation for elements.

If it has a file object, the file object for a package will be a package-info file. A package may exist and not have any package-info file even if the package is (implicitly) created during an annotation processing run from the creation of source or class files in that package. An unnamed package will have a null file since it cannot be declared in a compilation unit.

If it has a file object, the file object for a module will be a module-info file. An unnamed module will have a null file since it cannot be declared in a compilation unit. An automatic module will have a null file since it is implicitly declared.

If it has a file object, the file object for a top-level public class or interface will be a source or class file corresponding to that class or interface. In this case, typically the leading portion of the name of the file will match the name of the class or interface. A single compilation unit can define multiple top-level classes and interfaces, such as a primary public class or interfaces whose name corresponds to the file name and one or more auxiliary classes or interfaces whose names do not correspond to the file name. If a source file is providing the reference representation of an auxiliary class or interface, the file for the primary class is returned. (An auxiliary class or interface can also be defined in a package-info source file, in which case the file for the package-info file is returned.) If a class file is providing the reference representation of an auxiliary class or interface, the separate class file for the auxiliary class is returned.

For a nested class or interface, if it has a file object:

• if a source file is providing the reference representation, the file object will be that of the outermost enclosing class or interface
• if a class file is providing the reference representation, the file object will be that of the nested class or interface itself

For other lexically enclosed elements, such as variables, methods, and constructors, if they have a file object, the file object will be the object associated with the enclosing element of the lexically enclosed element.