http://www.eclipse.org/jdt: Java Development Tools Core (Eclipse Foundation) 
Copyright (c) 2000, 2013 IBM Corporation and others.
This program and the accompanying materials
are made available under the terms of the Eclipse Public License 2.0
which accompanies this distribution, and is available at
https://www.eclipse.org/legal/epl-2.0/
SPDX-License-Identifier: EPL-2.0
Contributors:
    IBM Corporation - initial API and implementation

/*******************************************************************************
 * Copyright (c) 2000, 2013 IBM Corporation and others.
 *
 * This program and the accompanying materials
 * are made available under the terms of the Eclipse Public License 2.0
 * which accompanies this distribution, and is available at
 * https://www.eclipse.org/legal/epl-2.0/
 *
 * SPDX-License-Identifier: EPL-2.0
 *
 * Contributors:
 *     IBM Corporation - initial API and implementation
 *******************************************************************************/
package org.eclipse.jdt.core;


Represents an annotation on a package declaration, a type, a method, a field
or a local variable in a compilation unit or a class file.

 Annotations are obtained using IAnnotatable.getAnnotation(String). 
 Note that annotations are not children of their declaring element. To get a list of the annotations use IAnnotatable.getAnnotations(). 


Since:3.4
@noimplementThis interface is not intended to be implemented by clients.
/**
 * Represents an annotation on a package declaration, a type, a method, a field
 * or a local variable in a compilation unit or a class file.
 * <p>
 * Annotations are obtained using {@link IAnnotatable#getAnnotation(String)}.
 * </p><p>
 * Note that annotations are not children of their declaring element.
 * To get a list of the annotations use {@link IAnnotatable#getAnnotations()}.
 * </p>
 *
 * @since 3.4
 * @noimplement This interface is not intended to be implemented by clients.
 */
public interface IAnnotation extends IJavaElement, ISourceReference {

	
Returns the name of this annotation. If this annotation is coming from
a compilation unit, this is either a simple name (e.g. for @MyAnnot, the name
is "MyAnnot"), or a qualified name  (e.g. for @x. y.    MyAnnot, the name is
"x.y.MyAnnot"). If this annotation is coming from a class file, this is always a fully
qualified name.

Note that the name has been trimmed from its whitespaces. To extract the name as it appears in the source, use ISourceReference.getNameRange(). 

This is a handle-only method.  The annotation may or may not be present.



Returns:the name of this annotation
/**
	 * Returns the name of this annotation. If this annotation is coming from
	 * a compilation unit, this is either a simple name (e.g. for <code>@MyAnnot</code>, the name
 	 * is "MyAnnot"), or a qualified name  (e.g. for <code>@x. y.    MyAnnot</code>, the name is
 	 * "x.y.MyAnnot"). If this annotation is coming from a class file, this is always a fully
 	 * qualified name.
 	 * <p>Note that the name has been trimmed from its whitespaces. To extract the name as it
 	 * appears in the source, use {@link #getNameRange()}.
 	 * </p><p>
	 * This is a handle-only method.  The annotation may or may not be present.
	 * </p>
	 *
	 * @return the name of this annotation
	 */
	@Override
	String getElementName();

	
Returns the member-value pairs of this annotation. Returns an empty
array if this annotation is a marker annotation. Returns a size-1 array if this
annotation is a single member annotation. In this case, the member
name is always "value".

Throws:
  • JavaModelException – if this element does not exist or if an
	exception occurs while accessing its corresponding resource
Returns:the member-value pairs of this annotation
/**
	 * Returns the member-value pairs of this annotation. Returns an empty
	 * array if this annotation is a marker annotation. Returns a size-1 array if this
	 * annotation is a single member annotation. In this case, the member
	 * name is always <code>"value"</code>.
	 *
	 * @return the member-value pairs of this annotation
	 * @throws JavaModelException if this element does not exist or if an
	 *		exception occurs while accessing its corresponding resource
	 */
	IMemberValuePair[] getMemberValuePairs() throws JavaModelException;

	
Returns the position relative to the order this annotation is defined in the source.
Numbering starts at 1 (thus the first occurrence is occurrence 1, not occurrence 0).


Two annotations ann1 and ann2 that are equal (e.g. 2 annotations with the same name on
the same type) can be distinguished using their occurrence counts. If annotation
ann1 appears first in the source, it will have an occurrence count of 1. If annotation
ann2 appears right after annotation ann1, it will have an occurrence count of 2.


This is a handle-only method.  The annotation may or may not be present.



Returns:the position relative to the order this annotation is defined in the source
/**
	 * Returns the position relative to the order this annotation is defined in the source.
	 * Numbering starts at 1 (thus the first occurrence is occurrence 1, not occurrence 0).
	 * <p>
	 * Two annotations ann1 and ann2 that are equal (e.g. 2 annotations with the same name on
	 * the same type) can be distinguished using their occurrence counts. If annotation
	 * ann1 appears first in the source, it will have an occurrence count of 1. If annotation
	 * ann2 appears right after annotation ann1, it will have an occurrence count of 2.
	 * </p><p>
	 * This is a handle-only method.  The annotation may or may not be present.
	 * </p>
	 *
	 * @return the position relative to the order this annotation is defined in the source
	 */
	int getOccurrenceCount();
}