Meta Annotation

Overview of meta-annotation in Java.

In Java, meta-annotations are annotations that can be applied to other annotations. These meta-annotations provide additional information about how the annotated annotation should be treated or processed.

Here are some of commonly used meta-annotations in Java:

• @Retention: Indicates how long annotations with this type should be retained. The possible retention policies are SOURCE, CLASS, and RUNTIME.

• @Target: Specifies where the annotated annotation can be applied, such as METHOD, FIELD, TYPE, etc.

• @Documented: Indicates that annotations with this type should be included in the generated JavaDoc documentation.

• @Inherited: Specifies that the annotated annotation should be inherited by subclasses.

• @Repeatable: Allows an annotation to be applied multiple times to the same element.

• @Native: Indicates that the annotated annotation is implemented in a language other than Java.

• @Deprecated: Marks the annotated annotation as deprecated. Java recommends that in javadoc, information should be provided for why this method is deprecated and what is the alternative to use.

• @SuppressWarnings: Suppresses compiler warnings for the annotated annotation. Usually used when using raw types in java generics.