Class Package

public class Package
extends Object
implements AnnotatedElement

Package objects contain version information about the implementation and specification of a Java package. This versioning information is retrieved and made available by the ClassLoader instance that loaded the class(es). Typically, it is stored in the manifest that is distributed with the classes.

The set of classes that make up the package may implement a particular specification and if so the specification title, version number, and vendor strings identify that specification. An application can ask if the package is compatible with a particular version, see the isCompatibleWith method for details.

Specification version numbers use a syntax that consists of nonnegative decimal integers separated by periods ".", for example "2.0" or "1.2.3.4.5.6.7". This allows an extensible number to be used to represent major, minor, micro, etc. versions. The version specification is described by the following formal grammar:

SpecificationVersion:

Digits RefinedVersion_opt

RefinedVersion:

. Digits

. Digits RefinedVersion

Digits:

Digit

Digits

Digit:

any character for which Character.isDigit(char) returns true, e.g. 0, 1, 2, ...

The implementation title, version, and vendor strings identify an implementation and are made available conveniently to enable accurate reporting of the packages involved when a problem occurs. The contents all three implementation strings are vendor specific. The implementation version strings have no specified syntax and should only be compared for equality with desired version identifiers.

Within each ClassLoader instance all classes from the same java package have the same Package object. The static methods allow a package to be found by name or the set of all packages known to the current class loader to be found.

Methods

getName

public String getName()

Return the name of this package.

Returns:

The fully-qualified name of this package as defined in section 6.5.3 of The Java™ Language Specification, for example, java.lang

getSpecificationTitle

public String getSpecificationTitle()

Return the title of the specification that this package implements.

Returns:

the specification title, null is returned if it is not known.

getSpecificationVersion

public String getSpecificationVersion()

Returns the version number of the specification that this package implements. This version string must be a sequence of nonnegative decimal integers separated by "."'s and may have leading zeros. When version strings are compared the most significant numbers are compared.

Returns:

the specification version, null is returned if it is not known.

getSpecificationVendor

public String getSpecificationVendor()

Return the name of the organization, vendor, or company that owns and maintains the specification of the classes that implement this package.

Returns:

the specification vendor, null is returned if it is not known.

getImplementationTitle

public String getImplementationTitle()

Return the title of this package.

Returns:

the title of the implementation, null is returned if it is not known.

getImplementationVersion

public String getImplementationVersion()

Return the version of this implementation. It consists of any string assigned by the vendor of this implementation and does not have any particular syntax specified or expected by the Java runtime. It may be compared for equality with other package version strings used for this implementation by this vendor for this package.

Returns:

the version of the implementation, null is returned if it is not known.

getImplementationVendor

public String getImplementationVendor()

Returns the name of the organization, vendor or company that provided this implementation.

Returns:

the vendor that implemented this package..

isSealed

public boolean isSealed()

Returns true if this package is sealed.

Returns:

true if the package is sealed, false otherwise

isSealed

public boolean isSealed(URL url)

Returns true if this package is sealed with respect to the specified code source url.

Parameters:

url - the code source url

Returns:

true if this package is sealed with respect to url

isCompatibleWith

public boolean isCompatibleWith(String desired)
                         throws NumberFormatException

Parameters:

desired - the version string of the desired version.

Returns:

true if this package's version number is greater than or equal to the desired version number

Throws:

NumberFormatException - if the desired or current version is not of the correct dotted form.

getPackage

public static Package getPackage(String name)

Parameters:

name - a package name, for example, java.lang.

Returns:

the package of the requested name. It may be null if no package information is available from the archive or codebase.

getPackages

public static Package[] getPackages()

Get all the packages currently known for the caller's ClassLoader instance. Those packages correspond to classes loaded via or accessible by name to that ClassLoader instance. If the caller's ClassLoader instance is the bootstrap ClassLoader instance, which may be represented by null in some implementations, only packages corresponding to classes loaded by the bootstrap ClassLoader instance will be returned.

Returns:

a new array of packages known to the callers ClassLoader instance. An zero length array is returned if none are known.

hashCode

public int hashCode()

Return the hash code computed from the package name.

Overrides:

hashCode in class Object

Returns:

the hash code computed from the package name.

See Also:

Object.equals(java.lang.Object), System.identityHashCode(java.lang.Object)

toString

public String toString()

Returns the string representation of this Package. Its value is the string "package " and the package name. If the package title is defined it is appended. If the package version is defined it is appended.

Overrides:

toString in class Object

Returns:

the string representation of the package.

getAnnotation

public <A extends Annotation> A getAnnotation(Class<A> annotationClass)

Description copied from interface: AnnotatedElement

Returns this element's annotation for the specified type if such an annotation is present, else null.

Specified by:

getAnnotation in interface AnnotatedElement

Type Parameters:

A - the type of the annotation to query for and return if present

Parameters:

annotationClass - the Class object corresponding to the annotation type

Returns:

this element's annotation for the specified annotation type if present on this element, else null

Throws:

NullPointerException - if the given annotation class is null

Since:

1.5

isAnnotationPresent

public boolean isAnnotationPresent(Class<? extends Annotation> annotationClass)

Specified by:

isAnnotationPresent in interface AnnotatedElement

Parameters:

annotationClass - the Class object corresponding to the annotation type

Returns:

true if an annotation for the specified annotation type is present on this element, else false

Throws:

NullPointerException - if the given annotation class is null

Since:

1.5

getAnnotationsByType

public <A extends Annotation> A[] getAnnotationsByType(Class<A> annotationClass)

Description copied from interface: AnnotatedElement

Returns annotations that are associated with this element. If there are no annotations associated with this element, the return value is an array of length 0. The difference between this method and AnnotatedElement.getAnnotation(Class) is that this method detects if its argument is a repeatable annotation type (JLS 9.6), and if so, attempts to find one or more annotations of that type by "looking through" a container annotation. The caller of this method is free to modify the returned array; it will have no effect on the arrays returned to other callers.

Specified by:

getAnnotationsByType in interface AnnotatedElement

Type Parameters:

A - the type of the annotation to query for and return if present

Parameters:

annotationClass - the Class object corresponding to the annotation type

Returns:

all this element's annotations for the specified annotation type if associated with this element, else an array of length zero

Throws:

NullPointerException - if the given annotation class is null

Since:

1.8

getAnnotations

public Annotation[] getAnnotations()

Description copied from interface: AnnotatedElement

Returns annotations that are present on this element. If there are no annotations present on this element, the return value is an array of length 0. The caller of this method is free to modify the returned array; it will have no effect on the arrays returned to other callers.

Specified by:

getAnnotations in interface AnnotatedElement

Returns:

annotations present on this element

Since:

1.5

getDeclaredAnnotation

public <A extends Annotation> A getDeclaredAnnotation(Class<A> annotationClass)

Description copied from interface: AnnotatedElement

Returns this element's annotation for the specified type if such an annotation is directly present, else null. This method ignores inherited annotations. (Returns null if no annotations are directly present on this element.)

Specified by:

getDeclaredAnnotation in interface AnnotatedElement

Type Parameters:

A - the type of the annotation to query for and return if directly present

Parameters:

annotationClass - the Class object corresponding to the annotation type

Returns:

this element's annotation for the specified annotation type if directly present on this element, else null

Throws:

NullPointerException - if the given annotation class is null

Since:

1.8

getDeclaredAnnotationsByType

public <A extends Annotation> A[] getDeclaredAnnotationsByType(Class<A> annotationClass)

Description copied from interface: AnnotatedElement

Returns this element's annotation(s) for the specified type if such annotations are either directly present or indirectly present. This method ignores inherited annotations. If there are no specified annotations directly or indirectly present on this element, the return value is an array of length 0. The difference between this method and AnnotatedElement.getDeclaredAnnotation(Class) is that this method detects if its argument is a repeatable annotation type (JLS 9.6), and if so, attempts to find one or more annotations of that type by "looking through" a container annotation if one is present. The caller of this method is free to modify the returned array; it will have no effect on the arrays returned to other callers.

Specified by:

getDeclaredAnnotationsByType in interface AnnotatedElement

Type Parameters:

A - the type of the annotation to query for and return if directly or indirectly present

Parameters:

annotationClass - the Class object corresponding to the annotation type

Returns:

all this element's annotations for the specified annotation type if directly or indirectly present on this element, else an array of length zero

Throws:

NullPointerException - if the given annotation class is null

Since:

1.8

getDeclaredAnnotations

public Annotation[] getDeclaredAnnotations()

Description copied from interface: AnnotatedElement

Returns annotations that are directly present on this element. This method ignores inherited annotations. If there are no annotations directly present on this element, the return value is an array of length 0. The caller of this method is free to modify the returned array; it will have no effect on the arrays returned to other callers.

Specified by:

getDeclaredAnnotations in interface AnnotatedElement

Returns:

annotations directly present on this element

Since:

1.5