Interface Elements

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.

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.

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.