org.springframework.core.annotation
Class AnnotationUtils

java.lang.Object
  org.springframework.core.annotation.AnnotationUtils

public abstract class AnnotationUtils
extends Object

General utility methods for working with annotations, handling bridge methods (which the compiler generates for generic declarations) as well as super methods (for optional "annotation inheritance"). Note that none of this is provided by the JDK's introspection facilities themselves.

As a general rule for runtime-retained annotations (e.g. for transaction control, authorization or service exposure), always use the lookup methods on this class instead of the plain annotation lookup methods in the JDK. You can still explicitly choose between lookup on the given class level only (getAnnotation(java.lang.reflect.Method, java.lang.Class)) and lookup in the entire inheritance hierarchy of the given method (findAnnotation(java.lang.reflect.Method, java.lang.Class)).

Since:

2.0

Author:

Rod Johnson, Rob Harrop, Juergen Hoeller

See Also:

AccessibleObject.getAnnotations(), Method.getAnnotation(Class)

Constructor Summary

AnnotationUtils()

Method Summary

static <A extends Annotation> A	findAnnotation(Method method, Class<A> annotationType) Get a single Annotation of annotationType from the supplied Method, traversing its super methods if no annotation can be found on the given method.
static <A extends Annotation> A	getAnnotation(Method method, Class<A> annotationType) Get a single Annotation of annotationType from the supplied Method.
static Annotation[]	getAnnotations(Method method) Get all Annotations from the supplied Method.

Methods inherited from class java.lang.Object

clone, equals, finalize, getClass, hashCode, notify, notifyAll, toString, wait, wait, wait

Constructor Detail

AnnotationUtils

public AnnotationUtils()

Method Detail

getAnnotations

public static Annotation[] getAnnotations(Method method)

Get all Annotations from the supplied Method.

Correctly handles bridge Methods generated by the compiler.

Parameters:

method - the method to look for annotations on

Returns:

the annotations found

See Also:

BridgeMethodResolver.findBridgedMethod(Method)

getAnnotation

public static <A extends Annotation> A getAnnotation(Method method,
                                                     Class<A> annotationType)

Get a single Annotation of annotationType from the supplied Method.

Correctly handles bridge Methods generated by the compiler.

Parameters:

method - the method to look for annotations on

annotationType - the annotation class to look for

Returns:

the annotations found

See Also:

BridgeMethodResolver.findBridgedMethod(Method)

findAnnotation

public static <A extends Annotation> A findAnnotation(Method method,
                                                      Class<A> annotationType)

Get a single Annotation of annotationType from the supplied Method, traversing its super methods if no annotation can be found on the given method.

Annotations on methods are not inherited by default, so we need to handle this explicitly.

Parameters:

method - the method to look for annotations on

annotationType - the annotation class to look for

Returns:

the annotation of the given type found, or null