Represents an annotated element of the program currently running in this
VM. This interface allows annotations to be read reflectively. All
annotations returned by methods in this interface are immutable and
serializable. It is permissible for the caller to modify the
arrays returned by accessors for array-valued enum members; it will
have no affect on the arrays returned to other callers.
If an annotation returned by a method in this interface contains
(directly or indirectly) a {@link Class}-valued member referring to
a class that is not accessible in this VM, attempting to read the class
by calling the relevant Class-returning method on the returned annotation
will result in a {@link TypeNotPresentException}.
Similarly, attempting to read an enum-valued member will result in
a {@link EnumConstantNotPresentException} if the enum constant in the
annotation is no longer present in the enum type.
Finally, Attempting to read a member whose definition has evolved
incompatibly will result in a {@link
java.lang.annotation.AnnotationTypeMismatchException} or an
{@link java.lang.annotation.IncompleteAnnotationException}. |